


Side Quest

by BubuBORG



Series: Team Medi:  Sons of Durin [5]
Category: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Video Games), Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Multi-Fandom, Star Trek, Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies), TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, Gen, Interstellar Numenorean Empire, I’m sorry these canon characters appear late in the fic, M/M, Ologs love Candy, Ologs reproduce differently, Orc Culture, Orcs, Original Character-centric, Other, Our Orcs Are Different, Shadow of War spoilers, Team Medi Universe, The Legend of Criss Damon, This side quest is turning into a series pilot real quick, gummy worms, multifandom - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-03-27 22:58:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13890924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubuBORG/pseuds/BubuBORG
Summary: The old USS Medea team has been reunited to pull off one last ridiculous mission.  With the help of Kaitlin's academic brother and his exuberant colleague, they are headed to a planet believed to be the origin of the fabled Numenoreans.What they're there to recover, however, is only known by Mr. Azkh.





	1. DLC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: This story takes place after the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek: Generations' prologue, earth year 2295 (Third Age 2956) As such it also occurs after the Borg destroy the El-Aurian Homeworld.

“Kait, wait up!”

 

Commander Kaitlin Riley paused and turned around. 

“Brad, come on, the transport’s leaving.”

Dr. Bradley Reid struggled with the satchel, as well as the pack on his back.Kaitlin herself only carried a small suitcase.

“I…gotta admit,” Brad said, looking his sister over. She’d shortened her now-graying blonde hair to a utilitarian length, and her bangs were swept up with product.She still looked good for a woman in her early sixties.“I didn’t recognize you at first without your uniform.”

Kaitlin sighed.This close to retirement, she thought, and she still thought of this ‘favor’ as an assignment, albeit off the books.Nothing official about what she and her team were about to do.

Brad on the other hand, looked far too youthful to have a Starfleet officer for a son. _Nita must be good for him after all_ , she thought.Sure, he still had the looks of an absent-minded professor (Which he was) but the salt-and-pepper beard was about the only thing that marked his own age.

Getting their luggage secured and their accommodations worked out, they sat in the common area of the transport, to look out for other members of the team.Well, she did; Bradley continued to keep his nose in whatever reading material he stuffed his satchel with.

“Why, Bonjour, Mrs. Riley,” a smooth voice came in from her left.She smiled as she turned to find Captain Maurice Reid, retired, getting comfortable in the seat next to her.His hairline had receded prominently, leaving a wisp of hair around the back of his head.It suited him as he held up his drink. his crow’s feet crinkled as he grinned down at her. “Imagine seeing you here.”

“Glad you could make it,” Kaitlin replied.“How’s the restaraunt?”

“Well, since Pa let me take it over, it’s been an education,” Maurice admitted.“I never realized how hard he worked.”

“Good, because he did indeed,” Kaitlin said.“I’ve visited from time to time.”

“Right.Now where is that ol’ yelper at?” Maurice said, peering around.“He’s gotten airs ever since he got the new wife an’ all.”

“I can hear you from the other side of the room,” a gruff voice said from Kaitlin’s right, looming over Bradley, causing him to look up.He saw a scowling, broad Cainian face look down at him, his almost-black furred face tinged with gray at his whiskered muzzle.

“Ah!Captain Ag’ta,” he exclaimed.“I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure; Doctor Bradley Reid…”

“Of course, Doctor,” Rott Agta said, and turned immediately back to Kait and Maurice. 

“Off the books,” he said.  “This is a vacation, as far as Starfleet knows.”

“Who else is coming on this?” Kaitlin asked.

“You might recognize the name,” Rott said to her.  “A Gatsby Gleeson?”

Kaitlin frowned.  “Yes I do know the name,” she said.  

“He’s settling in,” Rott said.  “That’s us, until we reach the rendezvous point.”

“At the Azure Nebula!” Bradley exclaimed.  “We found excellent artifacts, including a nearly-complete cruiser there!”

“I’ve skimmed your highlights, Doctor,” Rott told Bradley.  “Very impressive.”

“Rott?” Kaitlin cut in.  “How’s he doing?  Since he’s been back, that is.”

“He’s been rather quiet,” Rott admitted.  “For someone who just lost his home planet, he’s taking it…I guess.”

A sober quiet settled among them for several minutes as they watched the stars streak by. 

“Oh!” Kaitlin exclaimed suddenly, causing Brad and Maurice to start.  “Bradley!  How is Hector?”

“Well, he managed to survive the purge that occurred after the Khitomer Conference, and he’s been given bridge duty on the _Excelsior_ ,” Bradley said.

“After everything that was brought to light during the Conference,” Rott said, “A good portion of the _Excelsior_ crew was rotated out, with the exception of Captain Sulu and his core officers.” 

“Hector made the cut,” Brad continued.  “He’s Alpha shift helm officer and he’s also working alongside their new Chief Engineer.”

“That’s right!” Kaitlin gasped.  “Kíli got offered the post!”  She put a hand over her heart.  “They grow up so fast.”

“Yup,” Maurice drawled.  “I told him he could write his own ticket.”

“I’m here!” a deep voice breathlessly exclaimed.  Thick footsteps echoed throughout the observation room as Kaitlin found herself in the shade.  She looked up to see a mountain of a young man, wearing a midnight blue jacket covering a vintage t-shirt.  He gasped for breath and put his hands on his knees.

“Gatsby, my boy!” Bradley exclaimed, putting his arm out.  “This is the team.”

Gatsby Gleeson was six feet seven inches of awkward friendliness.  “Hey!” he yelped at them.  “I’m, um, Gatsby, I’m a xeno-anthopologist and, Omigod, I can’t believe we’re actually going to Ard—“

Rott cleared his throat loudly.

If Gatsby had a visible neck, it would have disappeared into his jacket.  “So anyway I’m Dr. Reid’s associate at Kent, and he…asked me along?”

“Hello, Gatsby,” Kaitlin said, and offered her hand for him to pump vigorously.  “How’s your sister doing?”

Gatsby’s smile faltered. “Oh, you know, she’s fine, her and Eldon.  They’re having their…” He stopped himself.  “They’re fine.”

Kaitlin nodded and gave his hand a squeeze.  “I’m glad they’re doing better.”

He nodded and turned back to Bradley.  “I’ve got the workstation set up and the linkup to the RIP.”

“The what, now?” Maurice asked.

“The Remote Interstellar Probe,” Bradley explained.  “It’s what we use to keep an eye on Arda from a discreet distance.”

“Oh, it’s more than that!” Gatsby exclaimed and clenched his fists to his chest.  “It’s a prototype subspace telescope array right out of the McGucket Foundation’s think tank.  It’s giving us data from five. Light-years. Away!” Gatsby held out his hand.  “Five!”

“Okay, so…” Rott started.  “What are you seeing there?”

“Captain Ag’ta, out of all of us, you’ve been to Arda the most amount of times,” Bradley stepped in.  “Your ship has scanned the surface, you’ve personally accumulated most of the data we have on Arda.”

“Right,” Rott replied.  “Second planet out, Class-M, ninety-seventh percentile of Terran norm.  On the books, it’s as mundane as it comes.  If it wasn’t for the fact that it was once the home of the Númenoreans…”

“Why does the satellite have to be five light-years out?” Maurice asked.

“Not by choice, I assure you,” Bradley sighed.  

“Gandalf?” Kaitlin asked

Rott shook his head.  “No.  Saruman.  He’s the gatekeeper to Arda from the universe at large.  He lets Gandalf wander, but he’d prefer us mortals keep our distance.”

Maurice’s brow furrowed.  “Why?”

Bradley and Gatsby shared a glance. 

“For lack of a better reason?” Bradley said, “Because he says so.”

“But anyway!” Gatsby exclaimed.  “The RIP gives us continual sensory data.  Geothermal, Meteorological…we’re even tracking the technological development, which, frankly, is pretty stunted.”

“Imagine a cataclysmic event that sent an advanced starfaring civilization back to the Dark Ages,” Bradley explained.  “And they stayed there for thousands of years?”

“What?” Kaitlin craned her neck past Gatsby to glare at her brother.  “What do you mean?”

“That continent—that Middle-earth—has experienced societal stagnation for four millennia.  Nothing in the general population above rudimentary pre-industry.  Even the Khazad have nothing above steam power.”  “But what about the remains of that civilization?” Maurice asked.  

Bradley pursed his lips and gestured out with his hands.  “Nothing.  It’s as if they never were.”

“But that doesn’t explain why,” Rott said, turning to Brad.  “We’ve come across worlds that rebuilt from the ashes of the past.  What’s going on there?”

“All in good time,” Bradley said.  

 

He ushered them into his cabin where the blue glow from his equipment lit the room.  The main display showed a world map.

“This central continent contains Middle-earth,” Bradley explained.  He pushed a button and a different shoreline appeared beyond the pointed tip of Eriador.  “This, however, was where Beleriand was located.”

“Was?”  Maurice said.

“By the Three Crosses,” Rott grumbled.  “They wiped themselves off the face of the map.”

So here is where the technological decay is most prominent,” Bradley said, circling the heart of Middle-earth.  “However, in the south, there is advancement, south of an area called Umbar.  Sailing vessels, running water, and hydroelectric power seems to be thriving.  Over here in the desert is Na-Rhun,” he indicated an area north of the ominous chevron of mountain ranges to the east.  “fossil fuels are mined and internal combustion engines have been developed.  They’re well on their way to figuring out airplanes.”  Bradley then moved the map to one of the other continents.  “This here is Valinoria.  They have a technological level comparable to us.  Possibly warp-capable, we don’t know.”

“Quite a grab bag,” Kaitlin remarked.  “So…?”

“Just wanted to illustrate the situation.  Here,” Bradley pointed at a place on the map closer to that dark chevron, “is what was once called Minas Ithil, the Tower of the Moon.  It is now called Minas Morgul.”

“What’s the significance?”

“We believe that there was a highly advanced space station in high orbit around Arda, and it was mated to Minas Ithil,” Bradley explained.  “Thus the name.”

“Not moon, but satellite,” Kaitlin said, nodding.  “Okay.”

“The significance of that is this,” Gatsby added, fiddling with the controls.  He zeroed in on the feed and the image zoomed in on a small object.

“What’s that?” Maurice asked.  

“It looks to be a mid-sized satellite in the same type of orbit that our conjectural space station would have occupied,” Bradley told him.  “However, its position seems to have been moved there quite recently.”

“As if…” Kaitlin stopped to gather her thoughts.  “As if someone had moved the satellite remotely on the ground to occupy that space?”

“Precisely,” Bradley said with a nod.  “The reason for the change, we don’t know.  But what’s significant is that someone down there knew how to do it.”

“What about the satellite itself?” Rott asked.  He leaned over Kaitlin’s shoulder and squinted at the screen.  

“RIP’s scans can give us the metallurgical analysis of the satellite, and the components that make it up.  It actually has similarities to late 20th century cryogenic chambers.”

“Can you tell from RIP whether there’s anyone in cryo-sleep in there?” Kaitlin asked.

Gatsby tapped a bit at the controls.  “Not exactly.  What we were able to do was to—this is sooo mega—“ Gatsby rubbed his hands.  “We were actually able to interface by remote with the satellite’s onboard OS!”

Kaitlin turned to Gatsby.  “Really?  That’s impressive.”

“Not really,” Gatsby replied.  “The onboard system was pretty mundane, and with our knowledge of the Númenorean language we were able to get a basic handle of the code.  I pretty much made out by luck alone.  But!  See for yourself.”

Kaitlin looked at the interface.  “If I’m reading this graphical interface correctly,” She said, “It looks like there’s two dozen units on this satellite that’s working.”

“That’s where we’re going,” Rott said.  “This is a recovery mission.”

“Say what now?” Maurice reacted, turning to Rott.

“They were put there with purpose,” Rott said.  “We’re helping him take them away from Arda.”

“Oh.” Kaitlin said, realizing.  “This was the Admiral’s plan, all along?”

Rott nodded.  “Any objections, hands up now.”

“Wait.” Maurice stood up.  “Does this mean we have someone on the ground that’s helping us?  Why?”

“This might merely be a coincidence,” Bradley admitted.  “We don’t know why these events aligned.”

“This could be a trap,” Maurice warned.  “Or at least a misinterpretation of the data.  Maybe those bodies on that satellite are there for another reason altogether.”

“Either way, the Admiral wants us to find out,” Rott maintained.  “But I’m glad you’re not the only one who’s prepared for this to go bad.”

Bradley gave Gats a meaningful look.  The larger man nodded.

A chime in the cabin rang out with a puff of static. A concierge’s voice followed. “Rott Ag’ta party please report to boarding dock B.  Rott Ag’ta, boarding dock B.”

“Pack up, gentlemen,” Rott said to the academics.  “And the rest of you, grab your bags.  This is where we get off.”

Kaitlin sighed.  She didn’t expect to be moving so quickly.  She’d have to pack as well.

 

When she finally made it, overstuffed luggage and all, to the gangway, Rott and the others were waiting. She didn’t understand—everything fit when she packed in the Complex! The Cainian’s arms were folded in front of him, but he looked more amused than annoyed.

“Sorry to cut your cruise short, Kait,” he said.  

“You owe me,” She replied, dragging her suitcase into the airlock.

“All right,” Rott conceded.

Bradley grinned at his sister.  So did Maurice.  Gatsby was too immersed in his data pad which was still connected to the RIP.

As the door to the connecting flight began to open, Kaitlin began to wonder if this was such a great idea after all.  She was no spring chicken—in fact, the only one of them with any type of youth was Gatsby, and his usefulness in a fight seemed dubious.  But the door behind her was closing and she took a breath.  

No turning back now.

She looked up to find a gaunt, green face glaring at her.  hairless, unblinking yellow eyes stared at her, wearing shiny dark clothes, looking for all the world like a cobra.

It took her a second to recognize the species.  They were Reman.

“We’re ready for you to board,” he said.  “This way.”

They followed the Reman through the ship, and Kaitlin noticed the dimness of the lighting.  Remans, she remembered, were sensitive to light, and perhaps this was a concession for their caretaker’s comfort.  They muddled through the dark corridors, with the exception of Rott, who could navigate with less light more easily.

“Almost there,” the Reman said, seemingly scanning Kaitlin’s thoughts.

The last turbo took them to a small control area in the front of the ship.  Unlike the rest of the ship, this area was well-lit with warm coloring.  No center seat here, just two control chairs.  Another Reman sat in one of the chairs, presumably controlling the helm.  He wore dark goggles.  

“Welcome, welcome!” a warm voice greeted them, as a figure in a long leather coat turned around to face them.  He had a pale visage, with luminescent amber eyes that crinkled at the edges as he faced them.  His dark hair was styled up, and his pale complexion contrasted with his hair and his coat, with a collar that came up around his sturdy pointed ears.

“Mister Azkh,” Rott replied.  “This is the team.  I hope you’ve done your homework.”

“The dossier you sent me was more than sufficent,” Azkh replied.  “I might be a little fuzzy on the transcripts of our academic team members, however.”

“Ah,” Bradley stuck out his hand gregariously.  “Professor Bradley Reid, good to meet you!”

Azkh chuckled and shook Bradley’s hand.  “Of course, Professor.  Your published works have been very illuminating for my work.  And this must be your associate…?”

“Gatsby Gleeson, hi!” Gats grabbed Azkh’s hand and shook it.  “God, this is a rare opportunity, I’ve heard all about you!”

Azkh seemed to be taken aback at first, but took Gatsby’s affection in stride.  “Well, I’m glad you’re here.”

“We’ve disengaged,” the Reman helmsman reported.  “Free to navigate.”

“Set course for RIP coordinates, Xurek,” Azkh told him.  “Warp six.”

Xurek nodded and complied. 

Kaitlin frowned.  “Why’re we headed for the RIP instead of Arda directly?” she asked Azkh.

“If we go directly to Arda from this position, It’ll light up Isengard like a Christmas tree,” Bradley replied.  “The RIP has technology that can obscure our position.”

“I’m assuming you would have told us that, if our briefing wasn’t cut short,” Maurice said to him.

Bradley shrugged.  

“At any rate,” Rott said, “Once we’re at the RIP, we can download the rest of the pertinent data to Azkh’s ship.  Then we can work out how best to proceed.

Azkh smiled.  “We’re so close.”

“Mister Azkh,” Kaitlin cut in.  “Doesn’t it concern you that we don’t know who put these individuals on this satellite?  We don’t know who this seemingly anonymous benefactor is, or what their motivations may be.”

“If you have been waiting for this opportunity as long as I have, Commander,” Azkh replied, “You wouldn’t care.”

Kaitlin looked out at the blue nebula vista out of the cockpit windows.  “We should be careful,” she said.  “There was Klingon activity in here not that long ago.”

“The Khitomer Accord put the Azure Nebula staunchly in Federation territory,” Azkh said.  “There’s a whole area that’s been ceded to the Federation that was once a no-man’s land.  A kind of limbo, if you will.”

“Lots of places to resettle?” Rott asked.

Azkh shook his head. “Not thinking that far ahead just yet.”

“But that’s the endgame, right?” The Cainian rumbled.  “Get these folks, see how they react to life off of Arda, and begin plans to colonize?”

“We just have to get them away from that planet,” Azkh said, his voice growing low.  

 

“That accursed Middle-earth.”


	2. Micro-transactions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaitlin and her team arrive at the satellite above Arda. 
> 
> Someone is waiting for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3/25: Added two pieces of my concept artwork associated with this chapter. Enjoy :)

 

Azkh took a gulp of his raktajino as he looked over the data.

“Your research has identified this as latter-era Númenor,” he said to Bradley.

Bradley nodded.  The satellite on their screen had a three-pronged outer array, which fed into a green ring-shaped generator device.  It was roughly cylindrical in the main hub of the structure, which tapered at the bottom, which pointed down to Minas Morgul below.  

“And it is most definitely containing specimens in cryogenic sleep,” Azkh continued.

“That’s from its own onboard computer system,” Gatsby spoke up.

“Can we interface with the satellite from here?” Azkh wondered.  “And once we infiltrate this, can we wake them up on site or will we have to take them to a medical facility?”

“That, we won’t know until we’re on site,” Maurice said.  “Without checking out this hardware to make sure that these folks are still viable to revive.  Frozen doesn’t always mean alive.”

“I would think you would prefer to revive them in a controlled environment,” Kaitlin said to Azkh.  “If their experience was anything like Fíli’s or Kíli’s, they’re going to be a little agitated.”

Azkh frowned and folded his arms.  “That’s a good point, Commander.”

 

Rott looked over satellite’s schematic.  “There appears to be a hard point entry in the central hub,” he said to Azkh.  “We’ll be going from the outside in.”

“We’re not beaming in?” Azkh said.

“Even from a synchronous altitude, any unauthorized transports can be detected from Isengard,” Bradley explained.

“I knew I didn’t like that old man for a reason,” Azkh grumbled.  

“The good news is, once we’re in and have secured these cryo-units,” Maurice said, brightening, “We can use the data from the RIP to mask our transport of them directly to your ship.  Then it’s smooth sailing.”

 

“Whoa,” Gatsby said, still staring at his data pad.  His face was agape.

 

Everyone turned from the screen to him.  “What is it?” Kaitlin asked.

“I…just got a message,” Gatsby said.  “From the satellite system.”

“What do you mean?” Bradley asked.  “From the computer system?”

“I-I don’t know,” Gatsby stammered.  “It’s addressed from the sys-admin.”

Azkh grew impatient.  “Well, what does it say?”

Gatsby lowered the data pad.  “It says, ‘ _If you come, I will be your judgment._ ’”

“Well,” Maurice said, scratching the back of his head, “ _That’s_ not ominous.”

“Let me see that,” Bradley demanded of Gatsby, who handed him the pad.  He went over the message.  “This message is in the current _lingua franca_ of Middle-earth,” he explained.  “It’s possible that the message was translated with some variance.”

“So maybe it’s not a blatant threat?” Rott suggested.

“In the end, does this change anything?” Kaitlin asked them.  “We’re going there no matter what’s awaiting us.  Now we know someone’s awaiting us.”

Azkh sent a warm glance in her direction.  “Well said.  As soon as we can get ourselves under cloak, we can get underway.”

With that, he left the briefing room to get back to the cockpit.  

“Hurm,” Rott grumbled, and began to pace.

“I’m not gonna lie,” Maurice said.  “This feels fishy as all get out.”

“Judgment,” Kaitlin added.

“We’re gettin’ too old for this,” Maurice said to her.  

“I mean?” Gatsby said.  “If we could figure out who this person is and what his allegiances were, it would go a long way toward…”

“Toward what, Gats?” Bradley asked.

“I dunno,” Gatsby muttered.  “Maybe establishing some kind of relations with some part of Arda.  A toehold or something.  Saruman can’t possibly speak for the whole planet’s interest, can he?”

Bradley didn’t answer him.  He shared a look with his sister, who went back to the screen. 

“So what we need to figure out,” She said, pointing at the schematic, “Is who goes out first?”

“I might have something for you for that,” Bradley said.  Let me see your device…”

As Kaitlin passed a small, flat, oblate object, emblazoned in gold on a red surface, Gatsby gasped.

“Is that…?”

Kaitlin gave Gatsby a sidelong glance and smiled.  “Come now, young man.  You don’t think that with Rott and Maurice here, that I just brought my good looks to the table?”

 

 

 

The final approach to Arda took about a day and a half at warp six.  Azkh didn’t have much in the way of creature comforts, but, Reman dimness, aside, the ship was warm and cozy.  To Kaitlin’s amusement, he did offer them a screening of an ancient Earth motion picture, one that Azkh proclaimed to enjoy without irony or context.  

Kaitlin was pleasantly surprised.  She herself hadn’t had a chance to view “Meet Me In St. Louis” before.  The Remans regarded it with mild amusement, but didn’t stick around to watch it fo completion.  Kaitlin and Azkh watched the final “The End” title as the movie faded to black.

“So do you enjoy Earth culture?” Kaitlin asked Azkh.

“I find it has its uses as a resource,” Azkh replied.  “But I don’t wear any kind of rose-colored glasses when it comes to studying it.  Humans have been only recently become much more enlightened than the peoples of Arda.  Even orc-kind.”

“Do you think we’re undeservingly entitled?” Kaitlin pressed.  “Because sometimes I do.”

“I know,” Azkh replied.  “I read your history of your Reid Complex.”

“They think it was so long ago,” Kaitlin sighed.  “And they think it’ll never happen again.  But then you think about Númenor.”

“Hmm.” Azkh said.  “Did you know your brother has a theory about the origin of Orc-kind?”

“Oh?” Kaitlin craned her neck toward Azkh.  “This should be good.  His theories are bonkers sometimes, but always smart.  Let me have it.”

“He believes,” Azkh said, “That orc-kind, or at least the push to create us, was in fact Númenorean in origin.”  His pale forehead wrinkled.  “We were created to serve them.”

“From Quendi stock?” Kaitlin asked. 

“Vulcans and Romulans, and, I suppose, the Quendi as well, have proven to be quite adaptable,” Azkh explained.  “And the creation of orc-kind, Professor Reid theorizes, was almost undoubtedly without their consent.”

“So when Númenor falls and descends into medieval times, those slave races were…what?  Taken by the darker elements of the survivors and utilized for a Dark Lord?” 

Azkh shrugged.  “Not all of Númenor’s glory has been wiped off of Middle-earth.  Perhaps the machinery that created our kind is what perpetuates them.  After all, your Arthur C. Clarke does have that quote about sufficiently advanced technology.”

“And those who roam freely?” Kaitlin asked.  “Azkh, I don’t mean to be intrusive, but how do you reproduce without that machinery?”

“Life, Mrs. Riley, ever finds a way,” Azkh replied, though not without a bit of pink to his cheeks.  “Now the other slave race, the Olog-hai, those are the one who perpetuate themselves in a novel way.  They release spores from their skin, and those spores combine in mid-air.  Now, how the Ologs identify themselves, only they know, but biologically, they release both male and female gametes.”

“That’s fascinating,” Kaitlin said.  “Did they exist before the Númenoreans?

Azkh shrugged.  “Not in the form they are now.  This is why the researchers are champing at the bit for going down on the surface.”

“Mr. Azkh,” Xurek’s voice came from the speaker by the door.  “We’re here, on synchronous approach.”

Kaitlin nodded as they got up and made for the door.  “On our way!” Azkh exclaimed.

Rott looked out the window at the planet.  At this distance, the entire disc of the planet was visible at once.  In the center, the pointed shoreline of Middle-earth jutted out into the ocean as the lower part of the continent remained obscured in cloud cover.

“Here we are,” Rott said to Azkh, who appeared transfixed at the sight of his world of origin.  “We’re locked onto the satellite.  For now, we’re keeping out distance.”

“All right,” Azkh breathed.  “I can’t believe I’m here again.”

“This your first time here since you were taken away?” Kaitlin asked.

Azkh nodded.  “It’s…quite striking from this distance.”

“Yes, until you notice…” Rott pointed at the white clouds transition into dark in the eastern side of the continent.  But every now and again, a burst of fire shone out.

 

 

 

 

Kaitlin checked the EVA suit over for the third time.  Never too many times to check your equipment, especially with someone else’s gear, she thought.  Azkh was gracious enough to allow her to prep at her own pace.

 

“Is the audio pickup working?” Azkh worried over her her.

“Yes, Mr. Azkh,” She droned.

“And the—“ Azkh began.

“Sir,” Kaitlin said, firmly.  “This is not my first space walk, I assure you.  Now, take about five paces back and we can get underway a bit faster, hmm?”

Azkh genuflected and gave Kaitlin her space.  

“Now,” Maurice said, walking up to her as Azkh backed away, “You realize that I’m gonna be with you every step of the way, hein?” 

“We’ve gone over this,” Kaitlin sighed.  “It’s just like the old days.  A little unorthodox, sure, but what’s the point of having a SAGR grad as a team mate without expecting the unexpected?”

“Ah,” Maurice said, patting her on her suit-covered shoulder.  “I’ve missed working with you, chere.”

“Likewise,” Kaitlin replied and grinned at him.

“So is that why you tell people about my…peculiarities?” Maurice teased.

“Why, Maurice LeBeau, I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kaitlin teased.

“Uh-huh,” Maurice muttered.  “I’ll find out soon enough, you know.”

“Well,” Kaitlin said as she snapped her helmet into place.  “You’ll just have to wait.”

 

Rott’s voice came through the comm speaker.  “What’s our status?” the Cainian asked.

“Final checkouts now, Captain,” Azkh replied.

“All right.  As soon as you’re ready, we can begin our egress.  Ag’ta out.”

Kaitlin and Maurice shared a look and smiled.  “Old habits, eh?” Maurice said.  “All right.  Here we go.”

Kaitlin nodded as the airlock door opened.  She walked in as the inner doors closed behind her.  She waited as the chamber depressurized.

“All right, Mrs. Riley,” Azkh said over her comm, not quite addressing her in a way she was accustomed, “Board shows vacuum.  We are opening the outer doors…now.”

The doors opened, revealing the disk of Arda in full in front of Kaitlin.  But now she could see the satellite, and the sight of it made her stomach drop.

Oh, it was _old_ , she saw.  The schematic on a screen didn’t prepare her for the rattletrap that this once-shining and efficient derelict had become.  Now it was a dark green hulk before her, with pieces of infrastructure beginning to splinter off.  She made a mental note; if any of that split off and hit her, the impact would most likely smash her.

“Now don’t get antsy, Kait, we’re gonna do just fine,” Maurice’s voice came over the comm.”

“Joining me any time soon?” Kaitlin asked.

 

Maurice sat cross-legged on the floor by the airlock door.

“I’m working on it,” he said.

“Captain LeBeau, I’m not sure I understand,” Azkh said.  A quizzical expression crossed his face, and he glanced with Xurek, who shared it.

“This kind of long-distance leap requires a little bit of preparation,” Maurice replied, his eyes remaining closed.  “See, once me and Kait get over, we can get us over via the pattern enhancers.”

“And why aren’t you doing this…erm, in person?”

“We’re cutting down on the variables.  Now shush,” Maurice admonished.  Azkh went silent.  

“Captain,” Rott’s voice growled over the comm.  “We have a timetable to maintain.”

Maurice breathed out through his nose.  “Fine.”  With that, his eyes flew open, and Azkh thought he saw for a fraction of a moment a white outline of a figure leap out from Captain LeBeau and jump out through the airlock.

As Kaitlin ventured out, carrying the umbilical with her out, the ringing in her ears began to intensify into a loudening whine until

(Ey, Chere.)

There was Maurice behind her eyes.

 _Do you see the entry point?_ she thought.

(Yes.). Maurice’s voice was succinct as she could…feel his thought processes grind like gears. (Estimate five minutes before we fire retros on the suit.)

Kaitlin gave a glance to the magnetic umbilical endpoint which would tether the ship to the satellite, and also provide power to the pattern enhancers.  Everything seemed to continue to check out.

(You worryin’ too much,) Maurice chided her.

 _There’s no benefit to being cavalier about this.  Let’s be paranoid and alive, all right?_ She thought back.

A beat passed.  (So…) Maurice said, and she could almost see the curl of his lip.  (You were talking about old times with your future husband, was that it?)

Kaitlin audibly growled.  “You want to do this _now_?!” she exclaimed.

“Mrs. Riley?” Azkh’s voice crackled over the comm.

“I’m not talking to you!” she snapped.

(Still don’t explain why Mr. Kíli knew about the body-swap incident, do it?)

Kaitlin huffed.  _I…_ might _have included a reference to that in the book, all right?  The two of them learned English specifically to read the book, and that edition had the reference in a footnote.  Happy?_

(Really?) Maurice’s thought-voice in her head brightened and seemed to gain a vibrato.  (Still, you should have asked.  I don’t like people knowing about my ability.)

 _Fair enough_ , Kaitlin agreed.  _I’ll omit the footnote in the next edition._

Now the satellite was coming up much quicker now and Kaitlin moved to hit the jets that would slow her approach.  at five meters she slowed to almost a stop and allowed the magnets to take her in the rest of the way.  There was no sound, of course when the umbilical connected with the satellite, but the vibrations of the connection was satisfying all the same.

The entry door remained.  

 

 

Back on Azkh’s ship, Gatsby and Rott arrived at the airlock.  Gatsby furiously tapped at his data pad, working to interface with the satellite’s onboard computer while Rott knelt down by Maurice’s cross-legged form, talking at him.

“You two gotta wait, we’re almost there,” he said.  There was only the slightest furrowing in Maurice’s brow in response.

“I might have to open both airlocks to be sure,” Gats sighed.  Just…tappity tap, and…Oh!  I think I got the right one; it’s registering someone outside its door.”

In Kaitlin’s head, she could almost register a sigh.  (They’re working to get the doors open,) he told her.

Then another voice entered Kaitlin’s head.

( **Would you enter?** ) it said.

(That…wasn’t me,) Maurice said, shakily.

Kaitlin hated being intimidated.  “Yes.” she said aloud.

( **Very well** ,) the voice replied.  

And the outer doors of the satellite slid open.

For a moment, beyond the doors was a void of black, but then, with a unsteady flicker, were greenish white light.  

(Well,) Maurice said.  (Guess that’s the welcome mat, then.)

Kaitlin moved into the airlock and saw blinking red lights as the room began to pressurize.  She took out a borrowed tricorder and scanned the atmosphere that was streaming in.  A little thready, but breathable.  Possibly stale, but beggars and all that.

(Steady, Kait,) Maurice assured her. 

“Okay,” Kaitlin muttered.  “We’re almost there.  

A tone signaled pressurization was complete.  

The inner doors slid open.

Kaitlin began to feel the pull of gravity slowly anchor her to the floor as the flicker of lights within began to illuminate a hallway.

 

“Here we go.”

 

 

 

She removed the EVA suit and in doing so, removed the pattern enhancers.  She arranged them in a triangular shape and turned each one on with a staccato beep.  The tops glowed with a blue-white light.  

 

“We’re go for transport,” Rott confirmed.  He slung his pack on his back, as did Gatsby and Bradley.  

 

On the floor, Maurice gasped, his eyelids fluttering as he once again returned to his own body.  

“Is she okay on her own right now?” Rott demanded of him. 

Maurice, not quite verbal yet, nodded his head and began to get up.  Azkh moved to steady him.

“That wasn’t…” he began.  “That wasn’t in your dossier.”

“In our family, we don’t like to tell people what we can do,” Maurice explained.  “There’s a bit of contention regarding folks seen as ‘genetically enhanced.”

 

“All right,” Azkh said with a nod.  “I understand.”

“Good man,” Maurice replied and shook himself.  “Whoo!  I’m all right.”

Azkh nodded and moved toward the transporter pad.

“Whoa,” Rott rumbled.  “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I thought it was understood that I would be coming along,” Azkh replied.

“This could be very dangerous,” Rott argued.

Azkh glared at the Cainian.  “If this doesn’t work,” he snapped back, “If this fails, then what is the point of me?  I’m _going_.”

Rott sighed, which, with his canine countenance, including a moment of his long tongue sticking out.  “Fine.  Here,” He passed a holstered phaser to him.  “I assume you know how to use it?”

Azkh put the phaser on his hip, looking directly at Rott.  “I’m more accustomed to disruptor pistols, but I’m a quick study.”  He straightened his long coat and turned to Xurek.  “Let’s do this.”

“Locked onto coordinates,” Xurek reported.  “Onto the platform, please.”

Rott, Maurice, Bradley and Gatsby clambered onto the platform.  Bradley was similarly discouraged to stay behind, but academic curiosity rendered him implacable.  Rott threw up his hands and nodded at the Reman.  

 

 

Back on the satellite, Kaitlin looked around.  Wherever she was, it wasn’t where bodies were stored, that’s for sure.  Rows of lockers lined the corridor to a central hub. A few of the lockers were open.  She wandered over and peered in.  

Empty, for the most part.  There was a piece of paper on the small shelf.  she gingerly looked at it, trying not to touch the millennia-old artifact.  

Just a note, one word scribbled in a language she had no chance of recognizing.  It didn’t seem likely that even Fíli or Kíli could either, considering the age.  She’d just have to wait for Bradley.

She looked into another one.  

Another note.

She glanced at it for a second—

Wait.

“Be not afraid,” she read the note, written in…Standard English?

“What the hell?” she muttered as the shine of the transporter beam cast a crisp shadow in front of her. She grabbed the note, age be damned, and moved to where the rest of the team were milling about.  She beelined to Bradley and handed it to him.

“What’s this?” he began and looked at the note.  “This is…” He frowned and looked up at Kaitlin.  “Where did you get this?” 

She bade him to follow her to the first open locker where he looked at the note she couldn’t read.  “Oh, this is one of the Quendi languages,” he said.  “Sindarin, if I’m not mistaken.”

“What does it say?” Kaitlin asked.

“ _Av’osto_ ,” Bradley said.  “Same as the other one.  ‘Be not afraid’.”

“Oh, this is the _trappiest_ of traps,” Kaitlin muttered.

Azkh looked around.  “This is not what I expected,” he said.

“What did you expect?” Gatsby asked.

“I don’t know.  Long halls, ethereal blue, and a lord or lady at the end,” Azkh sighed.  “This is just a storage locker, isn’t it?”

“Even lords and ladies have to store their junk,” Rott said.  “You should see my house’s storage facility.  It’s terrible.”

“Your house?” Azkh repeated.  “Are you nobility?” 

“Ahhh,” Rott said.  “It’s a house from a minor province.  Not like those K’gars or Dob’rs.”  He turned to the orc and smiled politely.  “My house made our living by fishing along the western seas on Cain.  Fishing’s not seen as particularly noble.  Thus the junk storage.”

Rott strapped his twin blades with the razored saber guards on each hip.  He saw Azkh eye them and he smiled and wagged his finger at him.  “You already have my phaser.  The twin blades of Ag’ta are mine alone.”

“Okay!” Maurice spoke up.  Kaitlin turned to glance at him.  “According to the tricorder, the cold storage is closer to the top of the satellite floor plan.  So we find ladders, because I don’t trust five thousand year old turbolifts.  Right?”

Maurice was the engineer of the group.  Everyone nodded their agreement.

“Kait, do you want to take point for us?” Rott asked.

Kaitlin nodded.  “You all might want to hang back for a moment.”

She took out the gilded red token from earlier and affixed it to her belt.  She then cleared her throat and exclaimed: 

“ARMOR…UP!”

As Gatsby and Azkh looked on in awe (And in Gats’ case, delight) pieces of red and gunmetal armor began to appear over Kaitlin’s form, eventually encapsulating her head in a helmet, essentially covering her in techno-armor.

“Feels a little hinky, Brad,” Kaitlin said, her face emerging from the front of her helmet.  “What exactly did you tweak?”

“Nothing major,” Bradley protested.  “Just some additions to the heads-up display.  What’s bothering you?”

“The audio’s a little…I dunno…something staticky,” Kaitlin said, and shrugged.  “I’ll live with it for now.”

Maurice moved toward the end of the corridor, which ended in a central elevator.  He walked around the column and found two other corridors. Eventually he found purchase in a series of metal rungs that went both up and down.  “Found it!”

Kaitlin went first, gingerly trying the ladder rungs.  It was a shaft, presumably designed so that if one lost their footing, they wouldn’t fall backwards.  One foot in front of the other, with Kaitlin keeping her guard up, so that the others could act faster if she came across something troublesome.

( **You wear the armor of the fallen** ,) a crackling voice said inside her helmet.

“What was that?!” she exclaimed.

“What’s wrong, Kait?” Rott called up.

“I heard a voice over my comms!” Kaitlin called back.  “Same voice from the airlock.”

“What do you think?” Rott asked.  Only he and Maurice had begun to climb.

“Whoever’s here’s trying to rattle us,” Kaitlin said.  “I’m not taking the bait.” And with an angry burst of speed, Kaitlin surged forward up the ladder.

“Well, whoever this person is,” Maurice said, “They’ve made a tactical error in pissing our Kaitlin off.”

The next level remained unexplored; Maurice indicated that what they needed was one level more.  So up they went once more, Where Kaitlin continued to power up the rungs of the ladder.  

 _Why me?_ she wondered.  Why not Rott, who was a much more accomplished warrior, or Maurice, whose mental powers were much more attuned to otherworldly contact.  She was always the girl with the tricorder, a witty remark and a thigh-high boot to the head.  Even with the Red Armor, she wasn’t as flashy as her two team mates. 

She almost got to the top when she saw what looked to be a sticky note attached to the final ladder rung.  Again, she could read it in Standard.

You give yourself too little credit, it read.

Her stomach began to sink.  This was a play, she decided.  Two opposing forces were using her to work against the other.

She wasn’t going to be used this way.  Not when she barely knew the stakes.

She climbed out of the ladder way and looked around.  Again, the lights flickered on in her presence and what she saw was…

 

 

 

Twenty or so units arranged in a semicircle around a main control console.  A large screen dominated the console, though much of it was dark.  Only a single monitor screen appeared to be active.  

“All clear!” she called down.

Rott and Maurice joined her in the center of the room.  Next followed Bradley, then Azkh, with Gatsby holding up the rear.  Azkh helped him up and he attempted to catch his breath.

“Whew!” he wheezed.  “Did not expect to do this with gravity.”

“That’s what you get for not using the faculty gym,” chided Bradley.  Now let me see…”

The professor went to the computer equipment in an attempt to translate the computer system.  “Latter-era Númenorean,” he muttered.  “Using the Tengwar alphabet.”

Gatsby came up alongside his mentor.  “The controls seem to be in line with what we’ve been able to interface with via RIP,” He said.  “Which means we are….” he tapped a bit on the active controls, “….already logged in.”

“Excellent work, Gats!” Bradley said, clapping him on the shoulder.  “So what we need to do is to see which of these units are viable…Gats?”

Gatsby stopped paying attention.  He was turned to Azkh who had suddenly collapsed.

“Mr. Azkh!” he exclaimed and moved toward him.

Azkh was on his knees, before one of the units.  Gatsby kneeled down and put his hand on his shoulder.  “Mr. Azkh, are you all right?”

Azkh sniffled.  Tears streamed down his face.  “They’re here.  They’re really here,” he said in a very small voice.  

“It’s okay, buddy,” Gats said, putting himself at the same level as the orc.  He helped Azkh to his feet and they peered into the unit.

The units were colored like the rest of the satellite, in soothing shades of green and yellow.  In cryogenic freeze the creature in the unit was covered in white frost, but Azkh and Gatsby could make out features that weren’t too unlike Azkh’s. A prominent forehead with a considerable goose egg dominated what they could see of his features. Ears slightly more batlike than Azkh’s, as well.

“This one, Prof?” Gatsby called back to Bradley.

“Erm,” Bradley checked and double-checked.  “Yes, he’s viable.  Seemingly healthy.  It also says he hasn’t been here for very long.”

Azkh turned to the Professor.  “What do you mean?”

Bradley shook his head and didn’t not look away from the controls.  “If I’m reading this correctly, It hasn’t been a year!  Now some of them have been stored here for maybe a decade, but…”. He turned toward Kaitlin and her team mates.  “This has happened extremely recently for a satellite that was built and launched into orbit at least seven thousand years ago!”

Azkh put his hand on the unit in front of him.  “Did he have someone put them here…for me?” he asked.  “Did Gandalf do this?”

“No, he couldn’t have,” Rott said.  “He and the other Istari were in the Delta Quadrant when this all happened.  Fighting and losing their home planet.”

Azkh turned and stared blankly at Rott.  “He…they lost?”

“Didn’t win,” Rott sighed.  

“All right,” Kaitlin said.  “What do we have to do to revive them?”

“The units are compartmental,” Bradley said.  “With a double-redundant battery maintaining hibernation conditions with each unit, they could be removed and hauled as cargo where they could be revived at a medical facility.  Starbase 12 is the nearest such place.”

“There’s also Drango VI,” Azkh said.  “It occupies space formerly in the Klingon Neutral Zone.”

Rott spoke up. “Mr. Azkh,” he said to the orc.  “What if we were to take this…deeper into Federation territory.  Would you be opposed to that?”

“That’s not part of my itinerary,” Azkh said, shaking his head.  “Once revived, these folks would be taken back to my planet.  From there we’d plot a course to a new home.”

“You could do that anywhere, though,” Kaitlin said.  “If we can tow this satellite away, we can satisfy both Brad’s curiosity, and keep your people safe.”

“Where would you suggest?” Azkh demanded.  

“I’d be happy to host you in my house on Cain,” Rott offered.

“Or, the Reid Complex on Earth,” Kaitlin added.

“Now wait a minute,” Maurice protested.  “This is literally trafficking in peoples we’re talking about here.  We can’t just offer to take them home.”

“Captain LeBeau is correct,” Azkh sighed.  “As they are right now, they need to be treated, not trafficked.  Their best interests come first.”

“Then your choices are the first two,” Bradley said.  “Starbase or Limbo.”

“With all deference to Starfleet,” Azkh said to Rott, Kaitlin and Maurice, “We should proceed into the former Neutral Zone territory.  There’s a planet—Fence—that can do what we need.”

“Fence?” Rott said, wrinkling his canine snout.  “I dunno…Kait?”

“It’s pretty Wild West,” Kaitlin admitted, “But if you don’t want people asking questions, that’s the way to go.”

“And the satellite?” Bradley asked, eagerly.  “This will be a boon to our research!  The intact database alone will advance our knowledge for the next decade or more!”

“Yeah!  We gotta stake a claim on this,” Gatsby added.

( **Already splitting the spoils of conquest?** ) the voice in Kaitlin’s helmet said.

“Aaargh!” Kaitlin cried out, more in frustration than in pain.  “That’s enough!  Who are you?!”

Behind them, the air began to shimmer, and a ghostly rectangular space began to appear.  They could begin to make out a figure who became more tangible as he strode toward them until he walked right in front of them.  

He was dressed in dark armor.  A rough hewn cloak covered his shaggy head and his face seemed pale and riven with dark veins, especially around his eyes.

His glowing red eyes.

“Is that…?” Bradley asked no one in particular.

“That looked like some kind of gateway,” Gatsby answered.  “But that would mean…”

“It would confirm several theories about Númenor and Iconia,” Bradley said, now oblivious to the dark figure in front of them.  “Keep sharp, Gats.  We may be able to do what we talked about after all.”

Gatsby nodded.

“You heard her!” Rott growled.  His teeth were bared, his eyes reflected with a green light.  “Who are you!”

Maurice began to hang back.  “Prof,” he said.  “Would you object to choosing a subject to revive ahead of time if things get hairy?”

“What do you have in mind?” Bradley asked, before realizing.  “OH!  Which one, then?”

“One of those bigger ones, over there.”

“Give me time, and I’ll work it out,” Bradley said.  “We may have to stall with this…Dark Númenorean.”

 

Rott kept his eyes on the man before him.  “Not going to ask again, stranger.”

“Was it you?” Kaitlin asked.  “ _You_ sent the message, didn’t you?”

The stranger smiled.

“You’re supposed to be our ‘Judgment’, is that it?” Kaitlin pressed.

 

“My name is Talion,” he told Kaitlin.  “And for coming here, for taking from my Gallery, your Judgment is at hand!”


	3. Level Grinding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Criss Damon makes an appearance. Kaitlin and Rott get a workout. Bradley and Maurice make a new friend. Azkh and Talion come to terms.

“Gallery?”

 

Kaitlin repeated what Talion called the collection of beings in cryogenic storage.With the luminescence of his eyes, she couldn’t get a bead on his sincerity.She didn’t want to take anything he said at face value.

“With your stolen armor, you have no place to cast aspersions,” Talion said.

“It was hardly stolen!” Bradley spoke up.Even with her Starfleet training, Kaitlin could always count on Bradley to be the brother that came to her defense.

“It was found on a planet called Bed-Lama, light-years away!” He continued, though Kaitlin picked up on the subtext pretty well: _Don’t call my big sister a thief!_

“Do you have claim on these people?” Rott asked Talion.

Talion looked them over but lingered at the sight of Azkh and the chamber he stood before.“You.Orc.”

Azkh held himself up straight and looked Talion right in the eyes.“My _name_ is Azkh.”

“Azkh, then.”Talion seemed to lose his edge.“These people who you serve—“

Azkh narrowed his eyes.

“Whoa!” Gatsby held his hands up.“I think we’re getting the relationship dynamics here all messed up?”

“An’ I think we’re done a disservice by not introducing ourselves,” Maurice said, moving forward to join Rott and Kaitlin.“I’m Captain Maurice LeBeau, Starfleet Corps of Engineers.This is Captain Rott Ag’ta, of the _USS Hanson_ , and this is Commander Kaitlin Reid…Riley?Riley-Reid?Kait?”

Kaitlin scoffed.Of all the times to ask about hyphenation!“Just Kaitlin Riley,” she said, and turned back to Talion.“You should know the name of the person you want to try to intimidate.”

“Clearly, I’ve failed,” Talion replied with a smile.“Hired swords to an orc.Life beyond Arda is different indeed.”

“They work _with_ me on the behest of the Wizard,” Azkh said, quickly.“Gandalf, the Grey, maybe you’ve heard of him?”

Talion frowned.“Perhaps.”

“Your so-called Gallery contains my people,” Azkh said.“I mean to take them from here.”

“So back to my question,” Rott said to Talion.“What claim do you have?”

“They’re orcs,” Talion said with a shrug.“They were in my service, and I have kept them preserved here.That’s all you need to know.”

“They were your _slaves_ , you mean,” Azkh said.He strode past Rott, past Kaitlin and stood toe-to-toe to the Dark Ranger.

“I owe you no explanation,” Talion sneered. 

“I didn’t ask for one,” Azkh replied.“But you should know this.I’m not leaving here without them.They deserve better than whatever it is you’re doing.”

“How would you know what they deserve?”Talion asked.“You have the look of an orc who never served the Dark Lord.Perhaps a Misty Mountain variety.Moria, by your pale hide.”

Azkh smiled his toothy, predator’s smile.“Son of Bolg,” he said.“Brother of Azog.Azog the Defiler.”

Talion smiled.“Yes.Yes, you are.And you have come home to liberate your brothers and take them away to…what?Make them your own army?”He paused as he gauged Azkh’s expression of outrage and added.“Or did you hope to make them more like yourself?

“It was you, wasn’t it,” Azkh said, quietly.“Gandalf said that someone was turning orc armies against another, to sow discord in Mordor.You kept them at each other’s throats so that they would be occupied with internal conflict instead of swarming Middle-earth.It was _you_ who defeated the Black Hand.”

Talion looked away for a moment and did not answer.

Then he looked at Kaitlin.“You must earn your prize,” he said, with a nod. 

“This is not a _game_ —“ Azkh began in protest.

“You must _deserve_ what you want to take,” Talion continued.His fierce red eyes softened slightly.“I have to know that you have their best interest at heart.”

Azkh heaved a sigh.“Very well.But this ends one of two ways.”

Talion nodded in understanding, then took a step back.“ARMOR,” he said with a deep reverberating voice.

“Oh, _no_ ,” Kaitlin groaned, realizing.

“UP!” he cried, and, like Kaitlin’s own armor, pewter plates moved, configured, until he was covered in similar, though dark, armor.A series of ridges that splayed outward from the top like an abstract crown, comprised his helmet.

“DarkBird armor,” Bradley breathed. 

Talion moved toward Kaitlin and unsheathed a sword from his hip.Bradley would consider it to be of a mundane Gondorian design, one of a simple soldier from the frontiers, but Kaitlin had no sense other than to evade and prepare for her own offensive.

Rott had other ideas.

“RaaaaAAAAGH!” he roared as his own dual blades were in his hands and he leaped at Talion, kicking out toward his center. 

Though he made a direct strike, he did not connect.He stumbled forward and landed on one knee, correcting himself as he faced Talion’s rear.Talion swung around with his sword and the Twin Blades of Ag’ta did make purchase, one after the other, with high clang sounds. 

Kaitlin activated the beam weapons on the shoulders of her armor, set low at first, to gauge his armor’s defenses.Not quite deflected and not quite passing through him, the beams seemed to refract at angles as they struck his body.

Bradley looked on at this and began to realize.“He’s out of phase!” he called to them.“Possibly temporal phase variance!”

“Then they need to figure out how out of phase he is so they can retune Kait’s phasers,” Maurice realized.“Or..”

He frowned and took several deep breaths.“Go ahead and begin the revival of the one we talked about,” he told Bradley.“I’ll take care of the rest.”

 

And with that, Maurice Leaped.

 

Talion, Maurice found, was unnervingly easy to leap into.Not at all like he expected.

 

From the Dark Ranger’s perspective, Maurice could see Kaitlin and Rott turn to look at his vacant form next to Bradley.

“Maurice?” Kaitlin said, turning to Maurice/Talion.

He’s here,” Talion said, with amusement in his voice.“So you have a wraith of your own.How interesting.”

(Why don’t you take a load off, and let me take the wheel?) Maurice thought to the Ranger and asserted himself further. 

Maurice threw a salute at his comrades and moved toward the ledge of the central shaft of the satellite.With a bit of hesitation, he jumped off.

A beat passed. Kaitlin and Rott looked at each other.“He didn’t just throw him off a ledge with him in it?” Rott said, with annoyance in his voice.“Thought that old fool knew better.”

(So, let’s talk about how easy it was to leap into here,) Maurice began.

 _We are not on speaking terms, wraith_ , Talion replied, and Maurice could hear him practically growl the thought at him. 

( _Wraith?_ ) Maurice repeated with amusement.(That’s a new one.)

Talion spoke a command at his armor.“WINGS.” and with that command pewter, batlike wings sprung forth from the back of his DarkBird Armor, as the antigravs in the bottom of his boots allowed him to land softly at the bottom level of the satellite. 

(See, usually, the term I get is ‘mutant’, ‘freak’, things like that,) Maurice continued. (But wraith, that sounds kind of mega.Should have used that as my call sign.)

Talion moved to a control panel and began gingerly tapping in controls.Maurice took note; it seemed as if he wasn’t completely sure what he was doing on this technological relic.

(So what do you make of this thing anyway?) he asked.(This seems to be as much of a surprise to you as us.)

 _It seems that the Men of Westernesse were not as we imagined them to be_ , Talion replied. _These things were revealed to me when I took hold of Minas Morgul and plied its secrets._

(An’ slowly but surely, one by one, you took those creatures and put them here.Why?)

Talion did not reply, as he continued to tap on the panel.

(I can wait as long as you please for an answer,) Maurice said.

 _I owe you no answers_ , Talion thought at him.

(’S fine, more fun guessing anyways,) Maurice mused.If Talion paid him any mind in his head, he would see Maurice putting his astral hands under his chin.

Talion sighed.

(I mean, I can tell you’re dying to tell someone,)Maurice mused.(And while I’m cooling my heels upstairs, you might as well…unburden yourself.)

Talion grunted as he pulled a final lever.

Behind them, Maurice could hear the sound of someone landing on the ground.

“Maurice?”

Kaitlin in her armor, her own, avian-looking wings, took a stance.The visor of her helmet glowed blue as the various phaser points on her shoulders and forearms warmed up with a slight whining sound.

“Unless you got him under control, you better clear out,” Kaitlin told Maurice.

Talion chuckled.“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Commander Riley,” he said.“A spirited woman like yourself must appreciate a true challenge.So here’s one for you.”

Around them, sections out of the walls began to shift around.Turning around, they revealed several figures which Kaitlin recognized as kin to her own armor.Where hers were red, theirs were blue.And where her armor was sleek, theirs had stylized designs on the chest and helmet, where winged flares jutted on either side of the head.

“There is a saying among my people,” Talion said to her. “That the Dead do not forget.I have learned that this is true.Behold!”

Terrible white light shone from behind Talion’s blank face mask.All around them, that light was mirrored in what Kaitlin saw as figures clambering all around Talion, moving toward the wall of armors and sinking into each unit.

Kaitlin groaned again.“You have got to be kidding me.”

Up above, Rott gripped his blades and turned to Bradley.“She’s gonna be outnumbered!I have to go down there!”

Bradley nodded, as did Gatsby.“We’ll keep working up here,” he said to the Cainian.

As Rott worked to clamber down the service ladder as quickly as he could he turned to his protege with a meaningful look.

It took Gats a second to register.“What?Oh!Yeah, whatever’ll help!”

Bradley then turned to Azkh who remained where he stood.“Mr. Azkh?”

Azkh looked at them, looking lost.“Yes?”

Bradley got up and moved toward the orc.“I’m afraid I’m going to have to borrow your sidearm for a moment.”

Azkh frowned and took it out of its holster on his hip.He handed it to Bradley.“Here.”

“Thank you.Gatsby?”

“Hmm?” Gatsby looked up to find Bradley point the phaser directly at him.

“Forgive me.”

With that, Bradley fired on Gatsby with a blue phaser beam which hit him directly in his chest.The force was enough to knock the large man back, knocking over the bench and landing him flat on his back. 

“Professor!” Azkh looked mortified as he grabbed his phaser back from Bradley and both of them moved toward Gatsby’s still form.

“It was on stun, Mr. Azkh, don’t worry,” Bradley sighed as he ran his tricorder over Gatsby.“It was the fastest way to render him unconscious.”

“But what for?” Azkh exclaimed.“We need everyone on their guard to—“

 

“Whoa!” a voice from behind them called out.“New host, who ‘dis?”

 

Azkh turned slowly to gaze upon a man almost as large as Gatsby, but much better built.He wore what looked to be a shiny blue singlet, gold knee and elbow pads, and a leather jacket on top.His hair shone, and was shaved down on the sides.His facial hair was stylized to the point of parody, and his eyes had a slight whitish gleam behind his irises.

“ _Every_ single time,” he said to himself.“Must be the younger brother this time, it’s way too early for the kid to… _anyway_!” he continued waving off his thoughts.“Hey! Prof!”

“No time, Damon!” Bradley admonished the wrestler.“We got trouble down below and this fight might be right up your alley.”

“Oh…kay,” Criss Damon said, making for the ledge.“Where are we, anyway?”

“On a cryo-satellite over planet Arda,” Bradley impatiently replied.“Now go!”

“I haven’t seen one of those in decades! Aweso-Mazing!” he said.“Well, guys…” He stopped and gave them the thumbs-up.“Gotta fly.” 

And with that he jumped.

 

The suits of armors began to twitch.As they did, Kaitlin could hear a slight whine, as the arms began to flex.It was the unmistakable sound of some kind of robotic servos moving the arms, instead of whatever arcane power was keeping Talion powered up.

These were robots, she realized.With literal ghosts in their machines.

She turned to find…and before she could even say his name, her face, obscured by the visor of her SilverHawk Armor, burst into sunshine.

“Criss!” she exclaimed.“Didn’t know if you were gonna make an appearance!”

“Heya, Kait!” Criss said.“What’s the what?”

“Evil Robots possessed by ghosts,” Kaitlin said.“What do you got for that?”

Criss rubbed his gloved hands together and put them out in front of him.“I dunno, but I’ll figure something out.”He cocked his head at her.“I always do.”

“What…who?” Talion muttered, as Maurice delighted in the Dark Ranger’s confusion. 

“Ah, the legend of Criss Damon continues,” Maurice said.“So, Gatsby…?”

Kaitlin nodded.“He and his sister Tamryn can trace their lineage to Staghart.”

“Well!”Maurice sighed.“As much fun as this is, Tally, I gotta bounce!See you later!”

With that, Maurice’s form Leaped out of Talion’s armor and moved upward.

As that happened, Rott landed on the floor from the ladder with a deep clanking thud and assumed his stance with both blades out.“Come on!” he bellowed.“Let’s get this over with!”

“We’ll see how you fare with my friends and their newfound toys,” Talion said.“And then, Warg-man, we’ll have a match.”

With that, the air around Talion began to shimmer, and he faded away.

“Damn!” Rott cursed.“Hate it when they drag it out!”

“Evil robots, Rott!” Kaitlin cried.“Can we focus?”

Rott looked around as the automatons began to scramble out fo their pens.Behind the glass of their visors, a glowing red glint could be seen.

“Oooh,” Rott said, pursing his lips.“This might take some work.”

 

 

 

 

“Mister Azkh?” Maurice motioned as the chamber opened.“You might want to come over this way.”

The Orc moved to the other side of the chamber as it began to open, releasing large amounts of cold vapor. 

“Is it working?” Azkh inquired. 

“According to these controls,” Bradley affirmed.“But they are ancient, so cross your fingers all the same.”

The chamber opened outward, then up, revealing the form of a larger creature.Though still pale, they had an orange, stippled complexion throughout its nude body, though it was a peach-cream color near the front.As suspected, the creature did not have any visible genitalia.

“That’s an Olog-hai,” Azkh said.“I-I didn’t expect to find them here.W-what do we do?”

“My god, he’s waking up,” Bradley said.“I thought he’d be too weak to be conscious after the cryo-sleep.”

The Olog-hai swung a leg out of the chamber, and before Bradley or Azkh could help or hinder them, they landed on the ground with a deep thud.The still-prone Gatsby shuddered as the ground shook.

“Uhhhgh,” the Olog groaned.They took deep, deep breaths for a moment before shaking their head.Slowly opening their eyes, the Olog revealed green, wide-set eyes on a face with barely a nose but flared nostrils all the same, and three deep scars on the side of their face.Dark hair appeared on the top of their head.

“Ohhh,” the Olog groaned again, and spoke.Bradley inwardly crossed his fingers that the Universal Translator was up to the task.

“I told him,” they said.“I told him, I didn’t want the fort!”And the gigantic Olog-hai promptly burst into tears.

Azkh and Bradley looked at each other, and back from the Olog.

“Professor,” Azkh said, gingerly taking a step towards him.“Could the cryogenic process result in any…damage?”

Bradley shook his head.“No.It’s a rudimentary form of stasis.If this poor fellow was injured or…affected in any way, it was a pre-existing condition.”

Azkh’s face hardened.“Talion.”

“NO!” The Olog cried out and cowered.“NO!I never wanted the fort!Never…wanted…” and once again was reduced to blubbering, their face concealed.

“Um,” Bradley took a risk and stepped over Gatsby, and moved past Azkh to gingerly place a hand on the Olog’s chitinous shoulder.“There, there.It’s all right.”

“No, no,” the Olog muttered.“Shame.Just shame.That’s all I am.”

Azkh balled his fist and turned away. 

“No, no, it’s okay,” Bradley took on soothing tones, and patted the behemoth’s shoulder.“Now, my name is Bradley; what’s yours?”

The Olog stopped and glanced at Bradley.“Cor, but you’re nice,” he said.“Name’s Brûz.Used to be Brûz the Chopper wasn’t it?Now I’m Brûz who Don’t Want The Fort.”

“Brûz will be fine,” Bradley said, smiling. 

“I don’t want the fort,” Brûz continued, whimpering.

“It’s okay,” Bradley said, shushing Brûz.“You don’t have to have the fort.”

“I don’t want—“ Brûz continued with Bradley talking over him.

“No, it’s okay, you don’t have to—you know what?When they ask, I’ll tell them not to give it to you.All right?”

Brûz looked up at Bradley.“Yeah?”

“Yeah.Promise.Hey…” He put his hand under Brûz’s voluminous chin.“Would you like some candy?”

Brûz pursed his lips, looked away, then back at Bradley.“Okay.”

Bradley moved toward Gatsby’s now-snoring form, and rifled through the pockets of his field vest.“I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that my snoozing friend has got something squirreled away…” he looked up at the ceiling as he fiddled with his hand.“Aha!”

“What izzit, then?” Brûz asked.

“Ha ha!” Bradley cackled, and presented the piece to the Olog.“Care to have a gummy worm?”

Brûz frowned.“You eat worms like candy?” He asked.“What funny Men you are!”

“No, no, no!” Bradley exclaimed, shaking his head.“It’s good!Try it!”

He held out the gummy worm out, and Brûz carefully took it between his thumb and forefinger.“Wiggly like a worm,” he muttered, and popped it in his mouth.Bradley stood there grinning as Brûz worked his mouth up and down, unaccustomed as he was to the chewy candy.”

“That’s,” Brûz said, his mouth muffled.“That’s all _right_ , that is!”He turned to Bradley.“Didn’t catch your friend’s name.”

Azkh shook his head.“They’re wasting time,” he muttered.“We should be getting these units onto the ship and leave that Talion to rot on this satellite.”

At the mention of the name, Brûz wrapped his arms around himself and began to rock and keen.

 

As he did, Maurice’s form heaved with a deep gasp, and his eyes fluttered open. 

“Captain!” Azkh exclaimed.Bradley remained with Brûz as the orc helped Maurice back onto his feet.Maurice waved him off, as he glanced at the Olog.

“That our boy?” He asked.

Bradley turned to Maurice and nodded.“He’s rather distraught, Maurice.Are you sure you want to make the Leap?”

Maurice walked up to Brûz and Bradley.“Is the, uh, translator working?”

“Yes,” the professor replied.“Brûz?Brûz, this is my friend Maurice.We need your help.”

Brûz glared at Maurice.“Saw him when he came in.Bright and shiny, he was.”

“If you’ll let me,” Maurice spoke up.“I’ll hang out with you inside your noggin, and we can work together.But _only if you let me_.”

“He’s not going to hurt you, Brûz,” Bradley reassured him, and added.“And he won’t make you have the fort, either.”

Brûz sighed.“All right.

 

“Um, if you could sit up for me?” Maurice asked Brûz, and he sat cross-legged in front of him.“Like this?”

Brûz complied.

“All right, I want you to close your eyes, and just breathe deeply,” Maurice continued. 

Brûz exhaled a deep, hot breath before the three.

“Here we go."

 

 

 

“HEAVY MODE,” Kaitlin commanded her armor, and as she did, the plates of armor began to thicken around her shoulder and chest.Her gauntlets began to enlarge as well, as she pumped her fists together.

“Whoa,” Criss said with a whistle.“Upgrades.”

“I tag the bots,” She told him, “You pin the ghosts.”

“Hey!” Rott exclaimed.“What do I do?”

“Look pretty,” Kaitlin teased.“Like you always do.”

“Flirty girl,” Rott replied.“You know I’m a married man.”

Kaitlin saw that while the bots were moving toward them, they didn’t have their beam weapons hot. 

Whoever it was that was occupying them, didn’t know what it was they were occupying, she realized.

With that, she walked up the closest one and, with her beefed-up gauntlets, shoved it into the next one. 

Flailing with their arms, both of them fell down.

Okay, she thought.This we can do.

Now, instead of shoving, she brought her fist up and brought it down on the next one.The impact was hard enough that sparks flew.

When that bot went down, she could see that silvery figure within emerge, only slightly.But that was enough for Criss as he, with his not-quite physical form, yank the figure out of the bot, leaving it inert, and the wrestler pushed into its intangible face and glared at it.

“Not alive, not dead,” it’s whispery voice said, and dissipated.

Criss turned over his shoulder back to Kaitlin.“I think we got this.”

So, like Kaitlin said, She punched Talion’s legions out of the robots, while Criss used his unique talents to disperse their presence.

“Y’know,” Criss said, as they worked.Kaitlin grunted with effort, even with her enhanced armor, while he did not.“I was hoping I’d get a cooler power this time.With Tamryn, I could summon vines,” he told Kaitlin.“With Abner Gorrell, I could manipulate metal.”

“Is it different with every host?” Rott asked.

“Every one brings their own…interpretation of me,” Criss explained.“I get what they provide.”

“And what if they’re…not that good?” Kaitlin asked. 

“What, do I do a face-heel turn?” Criss replied, grabbing another ghost until it turned into vapor.“Never happened.Never gonna happen, as far as I’m concerned.”

And, sooner than either of them expected, they were alone in a room full of ancient Númenorean toys.

“Aw,” Rott sighed.“You two got to have all the fun.”

Kaitlin shrugged, and her heavy armor retracted.“Maybe next time.”

As they turned back toward the center of the chamber, a raucous roar came forth from above and before they entirely knew what was going on, a massive creature landed on the ground with a shuddering thud.

“YIPPIE-KI-YAY, _BAISEURDE VOTRE MÉRE!”_ He roared, a naked, joyful creature, who began laughing.

“M-maurice?” Kaitin ventured

“We are havin’ a BALL!” the creature, with, indeed, Maurice’s Acadian inflection, replied and put his hands on the Olog’s hips.“Oh, I haven’t been in anyone this big in awhile.It’s like driving a TANK!”

“And…the other guy?” Criss asked.

“Who, Brûz?” Maurice replied.“He’s right here with me, we are buddies, I just might make him a blood brother,” the voice shifted to Brûz’s accent, then back to Maurice.“Though, I gotta say, he REALLY doesn’t want the fort!

 

 

Bradley and Azkh were left alone up above.They removed Gats’ jacket to put it underneath his head, while Criss Damon was still literally occupying his thoughts.Brad went back to his work at the console. 

Azkh went back to the cryo-unit closest to the console and absently placed his hand along its side.

“You seem to be gravitating toward that one,” Bradley observed.

“Hmm?” Azkh murmured.“Oh.Hadn’t noticed.”

“You do seem to want to stand next to him,” Talion’s voice seemed to emerge from the air, as Azkh whipped around to find him there, his armor retracted, his eyes the color of hot coals.

Azkh said nothing, but merely glared at Talion. 

“Let them go,” Azkh said quietly.“There’s no honor in keeping them here like trophies.Whatever you think you won from them, you got it.This is no sport.Let them go.”

“You have a use for them,” Talion said.

“I need them to be free,” Azkh retorted.

“What do you mean by that, ‘free’?” Talion asked.“Many would argue that giving orcs more freedom would result in more death and terror.”

“They said that about the Klingons too,” Azkh grumbled.

“Eh?” Talion looked at him.

“I was raised on another world,” Azkh said.“Klingons, they’re called.They can be warlike, but they can be many other things as well.Just like them.”

“Raised?” Talion repeated.“Orcs are not raised, they are _made_.”

“You do not know me,” Azkh hissed. 

Talion shifted his weight.“What would you do with them,” he asked, “Were you to take them away from here?”

“I need to know,” Azkh replied, looking at Talion’s concerned expression with confusion, “Whether they can…be free, or if they will forever be under the heel of their circumstances, whatever it may be.”

Talion walked up to where Azkh stood and placed a hand on the cryo-unit.“For whatever it’s worth, I believe that they can.”

Azkh watched as Talion looked into the glass, and toward the creature within.“They can be generous, they can be ridiculous, they can be loyal, and, yes, they can betray.”Talion looked over to Azkh.“They may surprise even you.”

Azkh’s brows knit together, and he looked at Talion. “What happened to you?” he asked.“Is this what you had to become to fight against Sauron?”

Talion said nothing.

“So you too are changed,” Azkh said with a sigh.“I keep saying it, but I wish it wasn’t so in this case.You can’t go back to how you were either.”

“You do not know me either,” Talion growled.

“Perhaps,” Azkh replied with a shrug.

“They’re not trophies,” Talion said.

Azkh looked at him, waited for him to continue.

“You’re…right,” Talion said.“I _was_ changed to fulfill my promises.I made choices.Choices that no mortal man should ever have to make.And sometimes my choices…were cruel.Because I could only see the end game.So I made one more choice as I set myself up in Minas Morgul.One that would keep those who was hurt the most by my choices safe from further harm.”

Azkh saw that Talion continued to keep his hand on the cryo-unit.“Him.You say ‘them’ but you mean _him_.”

Talion bowed his head.

“Listen to me, Talion,” Azkh pressed.“I am doing this for him.For those like him.For the hope of change.The good kind.I’m sorry you had to become what you are, but I can make it better for them.And not just them, but _all of them_.Do you think that orc-kind would be what you saw if it weren’t for that corrupting influence in Barad-dur?”

Talion glared blankly at the Orc.“I…do not know.”

Azkh laughed nervously.“Me neither!But I need to know that we aren’t doomed to be slaves and cannon fodder and things to be feared for all the wrong reasons!I need to know that I’m—that _we_ are not fated to forever be monsters.”

Talion’s lip thinned.“Nay, Mr. Azkh.You are no monster.Me—I’m the _real_ monster.”He looked back into the glass of the unit.“And he needs someone who believes in him, like you do.”

Before Azkh could say anything more, a loud noise came from behind them. They turned around to see Kaitlin, Rott Ag’ta, Criss Damon and Brûz/Maurice stand before them.

“TALION!” Rott roared.“We bested your little toys, now I think it’s time we resolve this once and for all!”

 

“Ah, _shrakh_ ,” Azkh groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, Criss Damon is a creation of Mitchell Gorrell, used with gracious permission.
> 
> Suggested soundtrack: 
> 
> "Assault on the Moonbase" by Griffin McElroy (From The Adventure Zone Podcast)


	4. Boss Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team face off against Talion; Gatsby goes off on his own Side Quest.

The Dark Ranger regarded Azkh one more time before he turned back the assembled team.“I see you found a larger residence, Wraith,” Talion said to Maurice/Brûz.

“Well there’s plenty of room for the both of us,” Maurice said, and grinned, with Brûz’s sharp grimace.“ _Mon dieu_ , but you did some things to him, ‘Bright Lord’.”

Talion didn’t reply.Azkh looked on.

“Bright Lord?” Bradley repeated to himself behind them all, still at the master console.He continued his work.

“Now, I gotta admit, he’s a little on the rough side, but what you did?Whew!” Maurice continued.“I hope my friend Azkh knows a good therapist!”

 

Talion looked over to Azkh who seemed uncertain.“He’s right,” Talion said to him.“With Celebrimbor, I used the powers of the Wraith to brand and control dozens of Uruks and Ologs to fight against Sauron.”

“Celebrimbor?” Bradley cut in.“That’s not possible…!”He shrugged.“Then again, That’s what they said about Glorfindel when he arrived on Earth a century ago…”

“Keep working,” Azkh said to the professor, never taking his eyes off of the Dark Ranger.

“So,” Rott said, putting his blades out toward Talion.“Are we going to do this, or do we find another way?”

“I’m afraid there is no other way,” Talion said, smirking under his hood.“You defeat me, or face judgment.That is all.”

Kaitlin’s face was that of disbelief.“This is insane!” she said. 

Talion nodded.“I can’t disagree.”

Before he could lob off another retort to her, he heard the whining sound of machinery powering up.He turned to find Azkh with his phaser in hand, pointing directly at his head.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

“I thought I was getting through to you,” He said.“But I guess you’re right.“You’re the _real_ monster.”

“Azkh” Talion began. 

“NO!” Azkh cried.“You are going to have to KILL ME before I leave here without them!”

Talion’s voice was even and low.“Azkh.Please.We are too close to Ratbag.”

Azkh turned back to see the creature’s passive, frost-covered face in peaceful repose within the cryo-unit. He slowly lowered his phaser.As he did, Talion leaned in and down.

“In order for you to safely take them,” He told Azkh, “I must be bested.This is not about you or me.The Eye, even here, is well upon me.”

“But—“

“We are doing this…for him,” Talion said.And he looked back to Brûz, still occupied by Maurice.“And for all those who I’ve changed.”

 

Azkh looked back at the pod—did Talion call him _Ratbag?_ —and back to the scene before him, with the trio ready for Talion’s next move and him, standing before them.

“Whose judgment _is_ this?” Azkh asked Talion. “Theirs…or yours?”

Talion said nothing.He strode over to Rott, who brought himself up to his full impressive height.

“Captain Ag’ta,” Talion said to him.“It would be an honor to meet you in battle.”

 

Rott regarded him.He didn’t pretend to understand everything about this dark man, but he knew there was a mix of common and noble that he, a _diablador_ from the fishing coasts, understood well enough.

 

“Captain LeBeau,” Talion said.“And Brûz.”

Maurice nodded.

“And my lady.Commander Riley.”

“Talion, please,” Kaitlin said.“You don’t want to do this.”

“No, I don’t,” Talion said, nodding.“But this is the only way you get to leave.What comes after me will be much, much worse.”

And before she knew what was happening, before she could stop him, Talion turned to her and grabbed her, hurling her with him down the main shaft.

“KAIT!” Maurice exclaimed. 

“Come on, LeBeau!” Rott growled. 

“All right, but I think it’s time for someone to wake up,” Maurice said, turning to Criss Damon.“Sorry, friend.” 

Maurice took his huge Olog-hai hand and slammed it down on Criss Damon.Not exactly disappearing, he simply dissipated into vapor.

“WAH!” Gatsby jerked awake.“I’m…I’m here!”

“Yes you are,” Bradley said, nodding.“And soon you’ll be…there.”

With a few button presses, Bradley brought up the gateway that brought Talion up to the satellite. 

“I think there’s a gateway to…” Bradley murmured.

Gatsby brought up his backpack, and slung it over his shoulder.“Oh boy.”

Azkh looked at them.“What are you two playing at?”

“You’ll appreciate this side quest, Mr. Azkh,” Bradley told the orc.“It’s about doing what’s right.”

“There!” Gatsby said, pointing at the gateway. In the portal, they could see classical, though somewhat run down architecture amongst raw mountainous lands.“That’s it!That’s Dale!”

Azkh snapped his head back to them from the gateway.“You’re going to Erebor!” he exclaimed.“To Fíli’s homeland!”

“I made a promise to my sister,” Gatsby told Azkh.“And to all of them, whether they know it or not.”

“Go, Gatsby!” Bradley exclaimed.

Gatsby began to trot toward the gateway and, at the last moment before the vista changed, he disappeared.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Azkh said.

“Me too,” Bradley agreed. 

 

 

Well, Kaitlin thought as she fell with Talion, If he wanted to force a fight, this would be the way to do it. “Heavy…Mode!” she strained to call out.

“WINGS,” He replied, as his bat-like wings deployed. 

She brought both of her gauntleted hands together and swung for his face.The impact brought forth a satisfying amount of sparks, and his recoil released her.“WING IT!” she said herself and brought herself to a hover before the ground came up too close. 

 

Maurice swung down, with Rott hanging around Brûz’s thick neck, and landed one floor below the robot room. 

“What’s this?” he said, as he looked upon what seemed like an ancient armory.The guns seemed wrong, and he struggled to articulate it until Rott spoke.

“By the Three Crosses those are some big guns.”

And he was right. 

Maurice strode right up to them and took a rifle into his hands.

A perfect fit for an Olog.

“We…we know this,” Brûz’s voice began to cut in.“It’s like we always knew this, innit?”

“Rifles made especially for them, Maurice,” Rott commented.“We can discus the implications later, for now let’s see if they work.”

As if on instinct, Maurice/Brûz took the gun and examined it.Maurice did very little but observe.“Looks like it still has a charge,” Brûz said.“An’ even if it don’t, it can still bash a Man’s head in.”He cracked his neck and Maurice spoke with his mild patois, “Let’s hope it don’t come to that, big guy.”

Rott looked up at Brûz’s massive form and hoped that Maurice’s alliance with Brûz held until the mission was over. 

“There’s some munitions that are you-sized as well,” Maurice pointed out.

Rott considered, then looked back up.“What kind of weapons do you prefer to use, Brûz?” he asked.

The Olog’s face looked surprised.“Bare hands, mostly.Gimme something heavy with spikes on the end, I’m as happy as a fed caragor, mate.”

Rott chuckled.

 

 

Up above, Talion retaliated to Kaitlin’s attack by using his own phase disruptors built within his armor.Kaitlin brought her gauntlets to bear the brunt of the attack, and grunted as she was pushed back several meters, and again as she struck the side of the central chamber.

“You rely too much on your intangible weapons,” Talion noted as he brought his sword to bear.“And it’s not your womanhood that I impugn.”

“Swinging swords around is more Rott’s domain,” Kaitlin said, cracking her neck.

“I wish I could learn more about your world…worlds?” Talion said. 

“Then can we please figure out a way not to try to kill each other?” Kaitlin pleaded.

(This is not his choice,)a voice whispered within Kaitlin’s mind.Unlike Talion’s voice within her, this was willowy and female, but no less powerful. 

(To defeat him gives you all freedom, including himself,) the voice continued.(Take this.)

 

Behind Kaitlin, suspended in the air, a white light appeared.Kaitlin looked amazed as a hand—a female hand—emerged and produced a sheathed weapon.

She took it.

 _It was_ you, Kaitlin thought.You _gave me the motivational notes, didn’t you._

(A time may come,) The voice, soothing and friendly, said,(When, not Bradley’s son, but his son’s son, will return and play a part in what must come to pass.) 

Kaitlin shook her head.She had no use for being someone’s hand or tool. 

 

But she took the blade.

 

“So,” Talion said, watching the exchange.“You’ve been given Eltariel’s blade.”

“Looks that way,” Kaitlin replied.

“What will you do?” Talion asked.

Kaitlin unsheathed the blade.And she looked directly at Talion.

“Finish the mission.”

The two landed onto the deck floor.As Kaitlin brandished Eltariel’s blade, so too did Talion.It was a broken blade, snapped about halfway through.Before she could attempt to question it, he rushed her.

Kaitlin Riley had done many things in her Starfleet career—lab tech, bridge officer, earthbound official—but, aside from skirmishes along the Klingon border, she never did much sword work.Like she told Talion, that was more Rott’s specialty. 

But she was a quick study.

She met his sword with her borrowed sword.His greater weight pushed her back, but she deftly moved her blade past his half-sword and got through his defenses.He swung back for another blow, but she crouched down and swept his legs.While he wobbled a bit, he did not go down.He grabbed his blade with both hands and stabbed down at her, and she rolled out of the way.As she did, she extended her free arm at her, and the whine of her more modern weapon fired up.

“Quite impressive.Are there warriors in your blood, Lady?” Talion asked.

“Survivors,” Kaitlin replied.

“Yes,” Talion said, circling around, sword still brandished.“I can see it now.A family line over the generations.For every survivor, though, someone has died a horrible death.”

“That’s enough—“ Kaitlin growled.Eltariel’s blade began to glow a brilliant blue.

“Disease, war, and…what is this?” Talion’s voice became curious.“What a strange beast that killed…killed your brother.”

“You have no right!” Kaitlin cried, and ran for the Dark Ranger.She struck at him with tears in her eyes.“Ashford died in the line of duty!”

Talion defended each blow, but continued to keep his distance.“But it fits the pattern.Your family created a great fortress in the wake of destruction, but almost every time you struck out into the unknown, someone ended up paying the price.The diseases of the frontier.Your grandfather—“

Kaitlin didn’t let him finish.She bashed his helmet with her Heavy gauntlets, and continued to punch at him.

“Shut up!” she cried, launching herself at him.She overpowered him and he went down with her over top of him. 

 

They didn’t notice the heavy footfall coming closer.

“The fatal mistake, laid bare,” Brûz’s baritone drawled.“Never piss our Kaitlin off.”He brandished the Olog-sized cannon and pointed it at the Dark Ranger.

“Mistake, my ass!” Kaitlin growled.she blinked tears away. 

“Forgive me, Lady,” Talion said, still supine on the ground.“But I needed your anger.”

“What was it?” Rott asked.

“Ash,” Kait replied curtly.

Maurice grabbed Talion and pulled him to his feet.“Low blow.”

“What are we going to do with you?” Rott sighed.

Talion’s armor receded and his red-eyed, ravaged face emerged once more.“You _have_ to do this!”

Kaitlin stepped away, and sheathed the Blade of Eltariel.“No.”

Rott looked uncertain, but kept his gaze on Talion. 

“I once told a young Khazad to find another way other than murdering someone for being who they are,” Kaitlin said to Talion.That person who I had him spare is upstairs with your Gallery.”

Talion glanced upward.“Mr. Azkh,” He said, quietly.

“So let’s find another way.”

“Right,” It was Brûz’s voice.“Be the bigger Man, right?Give everyone a chance to shine?” 

“You were given the Blade of Eltariel for a reason,” Talion said.

“Eltariel’s not the boss of me,” Kaitlin retorted. 

“It’s a worthy blade to defeat me,” Talion said.“But it’s not the only one!”With that, he grabbed one of Rott’s twin blades and turned it on himself.

“NO!” Kaitlin cried out. 

Talion plunged the blade through his abdomen.It made a stomach-turning wet sound as it penetrated through him.

“Dammit!” Rott exclaimed. 

“There,” Talion sighed.“If you want to do something right, you have to do it yourself.”

Talion collapsed. 

Kaitlin retracted her armor and knelt down. 

“No,” she said, and closed her eyes.

A moment passed.Talion lay still. 

Then, with a shudder, Talion gasped for breath.Kaitlin was startled, to be sure, but smiled all the same.

“My Lady,” Talion sighed.He was much calmer than she could understand.“This is not my end.As long as I draw breath, I will endure.”

“Quiet,” She shushed him.

“Bah,” Brûz growled.“Let’s get back up.”

“Then what was all this for?” Kaitlin asked, as Talion struggled to get up.

“Defeat, he’s been saying,” Rott answered for Talion.“Not kill.”

“Azkh,” Talion said, as Kaitlin helped him up.“What kind of man is he?”

Kaitlin began to laugh.“He’s an accountant,” She said to him still chuckling.

“And this was his dream,” Talion said.“To take the Uruks and Ologs here and give them the chance to live free.”

Rott looked up as well.“Can they?I know you don’t know about where we come from, but…these folks are going to be co-existing with…Klingons and Romulans and humans and…”The Cainian shrugged. 

“You fear they would become the hired muscle, the hand of another master out there,” Talion said, then smiled.“No.Your Azkh is too ferocious in his defense of his fellow orcs.He would advocate for their agency to his last breath.He was willing to die for them.I see in him a great and benevolent leader.And I see orc-kind become great and benevolent under his tutelage.”

“Man!” the sound of an out-of-breath Maurice came down the ladderway.“That was a workout.Meanwhile my real muscles are stiff as all get out.”He landed to the deck floor, and turned to Talion.“How do we leave you, Bright Lord?”

“Do you have the means to transport the…boxes…to your vessel?” Talion asked, obviously unsure of the terminology for the pods. 

“Yeah, I think we do,” Maurice replied. 

Up topside, Bradley looked at his wrist chronometer and at the empty space, waiting for signs of Gatsby.

As the rest of them made their way back up, Azkh locked eyes with Talion once more.“Is it done?” he asked.

Talion nodded. 

“What are you going to do now?” Azkh the Accountant asked Talion. 

“Mordor stays in its borders,” Talion replied.“For as long as my will remains.”

“How much longer can you hold out?” Azkh replied.“That thing was explained to me once,” He referred to the dark ring on Talion’s finger.The jewel upon it appeared to be a luminescent amber.“The more you put into it, the less of you remains.”

“We’ll see,” Talion replied, not smiling.He turned to Bradley.“Perhaps that will be a concern for, not Bradley’s son, but his son’s son.”

“Eh?” Bradley perked up, but went back to his work. 

Talion turned to the Olog-hai Brûz, who, without Maurice joined to him, once again seemed anxious and distraught.Talion approached him.

“I did you a great evil,” he said to Brûz, who flinched at the sound of his voice.

“I-If you apologize,” he replied, in a quiet voice, “I will quite rightly pop a cap in your arse.”He paused and spat at him, in French, “ _Vous n'êtes pas un Seigneur de la Lumière._ ”

“He, uh, might have picked up my native tongue,” Maurice said to Talion.

 

“ _Je ne veux pas la forteresse,_ ” Brûz muttered to himself.

 

“Is this what I have to look forward to?” Azkh said to Talion.“Is this what you did to your Ratbag?”

“No,” Talion replied.“He was never—I never had to.”

Before Azkh or anyone else could reply, they were interrupted by a distant sound of someone yelling.

“aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!” Gatsby’s scream increased in volume and pitch as he got closer and closer to the gateway border.Before he crossed the threshold, his foot ran afoul of a stray rock and he tripped, landing and sliding on the deck floor of the satellite.His backpack lurched forward and smacked him in the head. 

Azkh tried unsuccessfully to resist the urge to laugh as he scurried over to Gatsby, who groaned as he began to get up. “Are you…heh…are you all right?”

As Gatsby brushed off his knees and rubbed at his contused chin, it became clear he was a bit more loaded up than before he left.“I’ll live.Oh!This is for you…”

He took off his pack and presented Azkh with a bladed object.It was bladed lengthwise, with hand holds on the other side.

 

It was a rather distinctive Klingon _bat’leth_.Unlike the typical Klingon blade, it was straight, not curved, and the hand holds were devoid of gripping leathers. 

Talion looked at it with curiosity as well.

“That’s…That’s my adopted parents’ design,” he said.“Who gave this to you?”

 

Gatsby put his thick hand upon Azkh’s shoulder.“This was your brother’s.”

“Yes!” Talion exclaimed.“When Azog’s arm was torn off at Azanulbizar, he was reported to have one metal device or another lashed to him in its stead.”

Azkh chuckled, and took the _bat’leth_.He held it in the traditional style, with the blade lying along his arm, and he made a quick mok’bara motion to demonstrate.

“I don’t believe that Azog knew to use it quite so elegantly,” Talion remarked. 

“There’s still blood on it,” Azkh said.“Klingons view it as a good omen to receive a fallen relative’s weapon that has tasted blood.”

 

“I, uh, also have a message for Commander Riley,” Gatsby spoke up.“Um, she told me to tell you to keep your weapon as well.”

Kaitlin considered it, then shook her head.“No.”

“No, Lady?” Talion said. 

“This belongs to another legacy, and not mine,” Kaitlin maintained.She gave it to Talion.“I suspect it’ll turn up soon enough.”

Talion looked at the sheath and read the name.“Celebelian,” he read.“The Silver Star.”

“Perhaps for my future great-great nephew,” Kaitlin said and exchanged a glance with Bradley. 

“Okay?All right, we’re getting underway,” Azkh spoke into his communicator. He turned to Talion.“My crew are getting a little worried we’re overstaying our welcome.Your base planet-side is giving off increased energy readings.”

“I’ve switched all the pods to battery power,” Bradley reported.

“And I’ve confirmed all of our boys are ready to go,” Maurice added.

“All right,” Azkh talked into his box again.“Let’s start with groups of four in the main cargo hold, all right?”

“Locking on now,” the voice of Xurek complied.

“Energize,” Azkh said. 

He watched as four of the pods, including the one with Ratbag, became enveloped in fiery red light, and faded away.

“Confirm transport complete,” Xurek reported.“Continuing with the next batch.”

That went on for a half hour, allowing some time between transports to replenish power to the transporter system on Azkh’s ship.Talion looked on in awe at the display of technology.

“This would be considered wizardry,” he said.

Kaitlin shrugged.“But that gateway technology of yours is even more powerful.”

“If things were different, we would be allies,” Talion lamented. 

“If things were different, you’d be out here with us,” Kaitlin agreed.“Someday, you will be.”

“A world where kings give way to explorers, to rebuilding and relearning what was lost, and learning from the mistakes of hubris and avarice,” Talion said.“Where we learn to live with one another, instead of mistrusting and shutting ourselves off.It’s a future I can see, because it has already begun.”

“Mister Azkh,” Xurek called.“I think you want to get back now.Those readings are getting serious.”

Azkh strode toward Talion.“I can’t express my gratitude enough,” he said to the Dark Ranger.Around them, the rest of the team gathered their materials.Bradley placed a hand along the satellite console and sighed. 

“Nor can I,” Talion replied.“A time will come when I will no longer care for life like I do now.”

Azkh impulsively took Talion’s arm.“Come with us!” he said.“Get away from here!That place, that Mordor, is cursed for you as well.If you can escape, then we can find out together how to go forward…and how to heal.”

Kaitlin caught her breath.A good portion of her hoped Talion would agree. 

Talion, with his red glowing eyes and his Darkbird armor, looked upon the earnest orc before him.“Nay, Mr. Azkh.”

Azkh deflated.

“I must hold on to myself for as long as I can here.Be it a year, or fifty years, It must be done by someone, and it must be me.And you have a new life’s work as well.”

Azkh frowned and looked downward.Talion placed a hand on his shoulder.

“When this is over, when Sauron is no more, there will be hundreds of Uruks and Ologs and goblin creatures who will be bereft, in need of guidance…in need of a home.I have no doubt that they will turn their sights to whatever it is you will build.They will need you.”

“Who am I?” Azkh whispered.“I’m just an accountant.I’m nobody.”

“Everything starts with a nobody,” Talion replied.“Don’t let the myths lie to you.”

 

“Mr. Azkh?” Xurek’s voice was getting more and more distressed.

“Lock on to the Humans, the Olog… and Mr. Ag’ta,” Azkh said.“And energize.”

The team transported away, leaving only Azkh and Talion.The Gallery was vacated, and the gateway back to Minas Morgul remained. 

“There’s one more thing,” Talion said.“There’s something I want you to give…to Ratbag for me.”

“What’s that?” Azkh said as he found the Ranger’s arms begin to encircle him. 

Talion’s embrace was warm, and almost…loving.Azkh took it in, remembered the feeling, recalling the embrace with someone of his own past.

When Talion released him, he seemed…colder.As if another piece of his humanity was transferred over to Azkh in the embrace.It saddened Azkh even more for him. 

“You could deliver that message in person,” Azkh pleaded.“It’s not too late.”

Talion shook his head, and began to walk over to the gateway.“It’s best suited for _you_ now,” he said.“Farewell, Azkh, the Accountant.We may not meet again.”

“Now, Xurek,” Azkh sighed.

 

***

 

Talion returned to the chamber deep within Minas Morgul.The Dead had reformed back into the catacombs, and the room remained steeped in darkness and back lighting.The central console of the gateway was once again inert, its power sphere still and dark.He strode out of the room. 

(You have set events in motion,) A deep female voice spoke to him. 

“Yes,” he said, evenly.

(The battle you avoid with the Red Armor now will mean a battle with the Red Armor later.You cannot turn that fate,) She said.

“It matters not,” Talion said, still walking. 

(And thanks to your actions, a new path has begun.One that will pay off dividends for the…) The voice struggled to articulate.(For the entire _galaxy_.)

Talion smiled.“I am no kingmaker, Shelob.”

(Perhaps,) Shelob said. (But the sacrifice you made…has made a difference.)

 

***

 

Azkh stepped off the transporter pad and joined his guests, including a new one.Gatsby kept Brûz occupied by feeding him the rest of his gummy worms. 

“Mission accomplished, Mr. Azkh,” Rott said, happily.

“And the perfect end to a wierd ol’ career,” Maurice added.“Right, Kait?”

Kait looked thoughtfully at Bradley.“So far as anything ever really ends,” She said, enigmatically.“If being the guardian of the Complex ever taught me anything, it’s that nothing really ends, so much as enters the next phase.”

Bradley nodded.“So we enter the next phase.”He turned to Gatsby.“Pass off what we’ve learned to the next generation.”

“While paying respect to our predecessors,” Gats replied.“Happy grandparents and all.”

 

 

Azkh carried his new _bat’leth_ into his quarters.The ship was headed toward Fence, where he’d already contacted a cryogenic revival expert on conducting a controlled revival of his new charges.His guests had booked passage back into the Federation proper from there as well, leaving them to enjoy themselves as passengers. 

At three light-years distance from Arda, Brûz had already begun to show signs of recovery.Because much of the ship was too confining for his gargantuan form, he had to remain with his frozen comrades in the cargo bay.He held off any attempts to be made more comfortable, short of some large bolts of fabric to be used to sleep in.Proper clothing had to be held off as well; Rott managed to put him in a makeshift _fundoshi_ for his own modesty’s sake. 

But Brûz had a view of the stars as they streaked by, and he remained by the cargo bay windows, and gazed out at them.

 

Two days later, Azkh’s ship arrived at Fence.The space port was busier than Azkh expected; life without a Neutral Zone had improved the planetoid’s fortunes greatly.

So as they prepped the ship for disembarking, there was quite a bit of activity.Kaitlin and Maurice and Rott each contacted their respective spouses.Rott’s wife Nerei was especially concerned. 

Gatsby was on the horn with his sister Tamryn, reporting back.He came out of the com-pic chamber in tears, grinning from ear to ear.Where he had been had burdened him with more than a Klingon weapon; He now had another folder of parchments and inked letters and other materials to deliver to several people, the first being the Chief Engineer of the _USS Excelsior._

Bradley had all but completely plundered everything on the cryo-satellite’s computers.He worked to encrypt his data and have it transmitted back to earth as soon as he could get access to a more secure and powerful comm station.He also had a few other things to think about.Regarding the vague prediction of his descendants.

 

 

So, hours later when the ship was secure and the crew was free to egress, everyone seemed to be going in five directions at once.Azkh himself was in his room, again pondering the blood on his brother’s _bat’leth_ , when Xurek popped his head in.

“Mr. Azkh, we’ve got a situation.”

“Hmm?” Azkh turned.

“It’s regarding one of the cryo-pods,” he explained.

Azkh’s heart sunk.“Oh no.Did one of them fail?”

“Not…exactly.”

He followed Xurek to the cargo hold.Brûz had already left once the cargo bay was opened and he was free to leave the ship with Maurice and Bradley. 

“All the pods are still functioning,” Xurek explained, gesturing with his clawed hands. “Including this one.”

Azkh peered into it, ready for the worst. 

He wasn’t ready for this.

He looked up at Xurek.“There’s nothing in here.”

“I know,” Xurek agreed.“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

“So the revival sequence happened by itself?” Azkh asked.He narrowed his eyes at the Reman.“We both know that’s not supposed to happen.”

“ _Do_ we?” Xurek countered.“A lot of what’s occurred has been off-script.But regardless, what has happened is what has happened.”

A sudden realization hit Azkh.“Which one is this?”

Xurek pointed at the note placed on the pod.Azkh grabbed it and brought it up to his face.

The note had only one word on it.

 

_RATBAG._

 

“And in all the bustle of getting the ship docked…” Xurek continued.

 

“Ratbag has been revived, and is out there, alone on an alien planet,” Azkh finished, and cursed, covering his face with his hands.

 

“Frag me _raw_.”


	5. Character Skins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ratbag the Coward is lost on an alien world, while Azkh desperately looks for him.

_Well_ , he thought.

This _was different._

 

He barely escaped from Brûz before the brute had a chance to wake up.Didn’t want to deal with him in a fair fight, much less an unfair one.The narrow corridors of wherever he was, was filled with the noises of boots on metal, which meant more soldiers to avoid.Possibly some boots to nick later, but first thing’s first.

_Gotta get out of this box_.The confinement was driving him frantic.Sneaking along the side walls of the hallways, he kept looking until the space began to open up.

 

Then he saw it.

Some kind of egress hatch.All he had to do was to wait for those gaunt, Poison Tribe-looking buggers with the shiny armor to turn the other way, and he was home free.

Almost there…

_Come on, you_ shrakhs, he thought, as they moved far too slowly for his liking.

 

_There!_

 

He barreled away and down the hatch until the ground leveled and he was met by even more bustle.People moving around, sometimes carrying heavy objects whose purpose and meaning were incomprehensible to him. 

“Watch out, pal,” one of them muttered brusquely as he tried to move past.

“And put some pants on,” they added over his shoulder.

 

Was he… _wearing_ anything?

Some kind of…white loincloth, he realized.Great.Everything else, and naked to boot.

 

He looked up at the open sky.

It was not his sky.

For one thing, the gigantic reddish-brown moon there wasn’t there before.For another, flickering objects darted above with blue-white exhaust behind them. 

And then there was the people around him.

Not Uruks.

Not Ologs.

Some may have been Man-folk, but too many of them were…something else. They wore outfits that made no sense.Not warrior-folk.Not villager-folk either. 

 

What was going on?

 

“One thing’s for sure, Ratbag,” he said to himself, in a voice that was scratchy and unused.“We’re not in Mordor anymore.”

 

***

 

“What are you doing?”

Xurek tailed Azkh back to his quarters, where he grabbed a few items and put them on his belt.He glanced at the bat’leth. 

The blood on the bat’leth.

He grabbed it and moved past Xurek back into the corridors.Xurek continued to follow after him.

Xurek lost him after a couple of left turns but found him in the small science laboratory the ship kept.It had the most basic of facilities, including the means to preserve and store biological samples. 

He proceeded to take the blade and used the sampling tool to isolate the dried blood on Azog’s blade and preserve it. 

“What are you doing?” Xurek asked. 

“I need to preserve the blood on this bat’leth before we go out,” Azkh said.

“I don’t see the need—“ Xurek protested. 

“Someone was killed by my brother’s hand, before he himself was,” Azkh said, pushing his face into the Reman’s.“I need to know what or who that was.I just have a…feeling.”He straightened back up.“And while I know our working relationship doesn’t revolve around my feelings, you should know I’m not prone to these feelings often.”

“Quite so,” Xurek replied, with a thin smile.

“Now, let’s clean this blade and get it ready to get our Uruk back,” Azkh said, and launched himself back into the corridors again.

“Here we go,” Xurek grumbled as he followed him out.

 

“I want you to see if our passengers have booked passage off of Fence yet,” Azkh told Xurek as he walked down the gangplank.“I want you and Nimxon to keep a trace on my position and track my progress through the streets.If you can, see if you can scan for his bio-signs—they _should_ be similar to mine, but…” Azkh smiled weakly.“Do your best.”

“Wandering through Fence,” Xurek warned, “Could take hours.”

“That’s why I’m trying on this new contraption,” Azkh replied.“From the workshop of the _Excelsior’s_ chief engineer.”

He took it out of the corner of the exit hall and stood on top of it, while giving one of the two connected, midnight blue plates and gave one of them a little stomp.It began to power on, indicator lights glowing bright white.

“Okay, I’ve got the bat’leth, got the tracker, got the…” He looked down and realized.

He still had Captain Ag’ta’s phaser.

“Okay.” He shrugged, and up the hoverboard went.With a slight push, he moved through the bustle with relative ease.

“Mega board, pal!” someone yelled at him as he sped off.

 

 

“I didn’t even know they _made_ gummy bears this big,” Maurice said, looking in awe at the gigantic candy that Brûz was throwing into his mouth.“And he’s knocking them back like they’re person-sized.”

“They _are_ person-sized,” Brûz protested. 

“So they are,” Bradley agreed.The two were walking down a wide thoroughfare, where what looked like a cross between a flea market and a farmers’ market was going on. 

It was close by to a clothing store which managed to put Brûz in something more fashion-forward.It was called Aud’s Bods, and the owner barely batted an eye at the size of the Olog, noting that Brûz was _much_ more handsome than her ex.

“The orange suits you,” Bradley said to Brûz.

“Yeah, I guess,” Brûz replied and shrugged.“They’re just clothes.”

Before Bradley could add anything else, most likely something awkward about male display and possibly fishing for clues to Olog mating habits, Brûz’s nostril twitched.

“Huh.”

He turned, causing the bag of gigantic gummy bears and worms from Candy Quadrant to twist in his hand.He started to sniff the air, with his free hand, wafting the air toward his snub nose. 

“Um, big guy?” Maurice asked.“You all right?”

“I don’t believe it.I thought he was waitin’,” Brûz muttered.“The little pissant still getting more than he’s due.”And his bag began to shake in his massive fist.

“Brûz, come on, now,” Bradley said, putting up his hands.“We’re having a good time out here…”

“This is Xurek to Captain LeBeau,” Maurice’s communicator squawked.

He took it out of his holster and flipped it open.He kept eye contact with the Olog.“LeBeau here.”

“Good.I hoped we could get a hold of your group before you made your way out of Limbo.We have a situation.”

“I KNEW it!” Brûz roared. 

“Okay?” Maurice replied, and gulped.

“I need you to feed me your coordinates.Mr. Azkh will meet you and fill you in.”

Before Maurice or Bradley could reply, the loud whine of antigrav units came upon them. 

In his white undershirt and blue coat, with his newly-found bat’leth strapped to his back, Azkh looked down on the three of them.“Gentlemen,” he addressed them.

“Did _you_ do it?” Brûz growled at Azkh.

Azkh looked slightly taken aback for a moment, but recovered quickly.“No,” he said.“But he’s out here, and we have to find him.”

Maurice frowned.“Who?”

“One of the others?” Bradley asked. 

“Ratbag,” Azkh affirmed, nodding.

“ _Ratbag_ ,” Brûz muttered, grinding his teeth.“That little half-glob.”

Azkh narrowed his eyes down at the Olog.“We’re _finding_ him. 

Brûz shrugged.“Whatever you like, _Boss_.”

“Perhaps we should get in contact with Gatsby and Kaitlin,” Bradley suggested.

“Already on it,” Azkh replied.“I’m going to circle around this bazaar area.”

“Piece of advice?” Brûz spoke up.“You wanna find him, you wanna look for crevices and other places to hide.The little runt likes to cower.”

Azkh’s glare was withering.“I’ll keep that in mind.”

 

***

 

Aud strolled through the racks of clothes on the floor of her spacious shop.Her appearance was alien, with a mottled, veiny countenance and ice-blue eyes in contrast to her more mundane hairstyle and dress.An amulet adorned her neck, with a green stone in the center. 

Boy, that _last_ customer.

She knew from trolls, of course, but she never thought she would see something like that in her shop for…well, for a while.What a strange old universe, she thought with a shrug and made her way back to the till.

 

Wait.

 

She took a step back.

 

She sighed and rolled her eyes.“All right, get out here,” she said, her voice taking an edge to it.

She saw a pair of eyes in the eveningwear racks blink and recede.

“No, seriously,” She said.“You’re messing up the merchandise and if you’re going to loiter, you might as well…”

She saw before her a humanoid, green in complexion.He (she assumed it was a he) was slightly slumped, and crouched as he stepped out of the dresses. He had a lean, not quite emaciated, look about him, with various scars and pits in his bare skin.His hands were gnarled, with claws on his fingers.Similar claws were upon his bare toes.He was dressed in not much, white briefs with a series of characters printed on the side.His face held an expression that was unmistakeable: 

 

Confusion, embarrassment, with just a touch of shame.

 

“Erm,” He said, in a voice that was slightly deeper than Aud expected.“Ratbag didn’t mean to scare ya.”

Aud couldn’t help the strangled laugh that escaped her.“That’s…all right.I’m going to guess you don’t have money to buy anything.”

Ratbag looked down at himself and back up at her, and shrugged, a lopsided, pointy-toothed smile crossing his face. 

Aud sighed.“Let me see what I have in the closeout bin.”

She beckoned him to follow her to the back of the store, near the restrooms.There, in a beaten-up blue container, was all manner of discarded garments.She gestured to it.“See what fits.”

He didn’t seem terribly concerned about what looked good or what fit, only what seemingly covered more of himself up.After a few minutes looking at a few things, he settled on a brown pair of pants that dragged on the ground and a pink muscle shirt with some kind of message on it.

“What does that say?” she asked.

Ratbag pulled the shirt up.“I can’t read this.”

She pulled the shirt back down.The letters were black, in Standard, and read:

 

**PARTY GOBLIN**

 

Of course.

 

“So, Party Goblin,” She began, “What’s your story?”

“I woke up, climbed out of a box, made my way out into this place, and…I was hiding in your shop,” Ratbag replied.

“You woke up and climbed out of a box?” Aud said.“They do that here—were you cryogenically frozen?”

Ratbag shrugged. “I’unno.”

Aud scoffed.“Where do you come from, Ratbag?” She demanded.

“Mordor, I s’pose,” he replied.

Aud closed her eyes and shook her head.“ _Mordor_.Arda, Ratbag, you come from Arda, a planet that’s less than a week away at mid-warp.A planet that’s supposed to be closed.”

“That don’t mean noffin’ to Ratbag,” he said. 

“Someone snuck you away from your world,” Aud explained.“You’re on another planet now.”

“Oh!Yeah, I saw that big moon in the sky, so I figgured…”

It was that moment that the shop door opened with a jangling bell.

 

“Hello!Aud?”

 

It was Gatsby Gleeson.

 

“Oh, hey!” Aud replied with surprise.She moved toward him and attempted to wrap her arms around his large waist in a hug.“What the hell are you doing on Fence?”

Gatsby rolled his eyes.“Long story.Listen, I need to ask you…hey!”

Before Aud could say anything, Ratbag had bolted.

“ _Gaaaats!_ ” she admonished, then realized.“What do you know about this?”

“Um, well?” Gatsby scratched the back of his neck and laughed nervously.“It’s kind of a long story?”

“Are you smuggling orcs off of Arda?” Aud demanded.

 

“Well, yeah, when you put it like that, it sounds bad, but listen…” Gatsby attempted to explain.

“How many more?” She asked.

“It’s not what you think!” Gatsby protested.“There’s this guy—an orc—and he has this mission to liberate his kind so when we found the cryo-satellite in orbit, the Admiral set up this kind-of covert mission to…”

“To set up a new society of orcs?” Aud finished for him.

“They prefer to be called Uruks…?” Gatsby weakly corrected her.

“So where is this so-called savior?” Aud asked.“You know what?Never mind.I need to get a hold of someone.”

“Who?” Gatsby asked.

“Someone green,” Aud replied.“Your white knight orc’s gonna need more help than he thinks.”

 

Gatsby stood still while Aud marched away.“Hey!” he called after her.“Can we still talk about those T-shirts?”

 

***

 

“What?”Kaitlin Riley stuck a finger in her ear as she tried to listen through her communicator.“Are you _kidding_ me right now?”She rolled her eyes to the sky. 

“Keep an eye out,” Azkh said to her on his own communicator, kilometers away.“Maybe use your fancy Red Armor to track him?”

“It is not a Swiss Army knife!” Kaitlin protested.“It doesn’t spontaneously sprout uses…” She paused.“Except for when it does— _anyway_!Mister Azkh, this is straining the agreements we made when we agreed to this joint venture…”

“Mrs. Riley,” Azkh’s voice softened.“This creature is lost, he is alone, and he needs our help.If that doesn’t have Starfleet stamped all over it, I don’t know what _does_.”

 

***

 

Newly clothed, Ratbag continued his way through the thoroughfare.It was starting to become a bit much.It might have been the shock wearing off, but the complete unfamiliarity of this place, combined with Aud outright telling him he was on an utterly different world was…stressful.

The streets were too crowded.Too many people clamoring around merchants’ kiosks and, while being able to disappear into a crowd was probably best to keep anonymous, the feeling of walls pushing in intensified for him.

No.

Ratbag needed to dig in and hide.Whoever brought him here did it for a reason and…

His trust levels weren’t exactly high.

He stuck to the narrow alleyways between the buildings.By Glob, the buildings. 

All metal, cold and white, and smooth.He had yet to see anything made of wood. 

Food, too.He might have to risk losing a hand to get some grub.

“Hey, are you all right?”

He was huddled by the side of a building where an unused bazaar kiosk stood.His arms were wrapped around his knees and he rocked back and forth as he continued to think.He bared his teeth at the voice.

“Piss off!” he spat.

“No, no, I get it,” the voice said.It was smooth and soothing.“New around here, you don’t want to attract attention.“You hungry?”

Ratbag glared at them. 

Their face, though.Pleasing enough shade of green, with red horns and red lips.He wore an outfit that was designed to attract attention, in no way practical.

“Can’t have you loitering outside.Especially when my place is kind of a sanctuary.Come on.”He extended his hand.

Never keeping his eyes off the red-horned devil, Ratbag got up.He shoved their hand aside.“Sanctuary?” he repeated.

“No one can hurt you,” they insisted.

“Not big on trust right now,” Ratbag growled.

“Just trying to help.”

“Help me to some grub, and we’ll start there,” Ratbag grumbled.“I’m having a bit of a _shrakh_ day.

His benefactor nodded knowingly.“Honey, I’ve been there.”

 

***

 

Azkh continued his sweep.This time around he was accompanied by Brûz and Maurice.Bradley split off to meet up with Gatsby at Aud’s Bods.The Olog’s strides allowed him to keep up with Azkh’s hoverboard with relative ease, with Maurice trotting behind. 

“So,” Maurice said to Brûz.“You and Ratbag?”

“What about me and Ratbag?” Brûz grumbled. 

“You all don’t get along, that’s obvious,” Maurice pressed.“What’s up with that?”

Azkh looked over his shoulder at them.

“He’s not just _Ratbag_ , y’know,” Brûz said.“I was Brûz the Chopper, see?He was Ratbag the _Coward_.”

Maurice raised an eyebrow as he continued to walk after Brûz.“Is that all?”

Brûz scoffed.“Naw.The way he got out of scrapes by talking…?Talking, talking, _talking!_ Oh, my Glob, that little _shrakh_ could talk!He was _shrakh_ at killin’, _shrakh_ at huntin’, and if he ever entered into The Time, he was probably _shrakh_ at that as well.But he got lucky.”Brûz spat onto the ground.“Got his little hooks into the Gravewalker, didn’t he?Gravewalker picked him to become a _fragging_ war chief, for no reason than he was shrakh at _frag_ -all!”

Azkh doubled back to face Brûz.“We don’t have time for your jealousy, Brûz,” he said to the Olog which was easily twice his height.“If you don’t want to help me look for Ratbag, you can go back to the ship.”

“Oi, _Accountant_ ,” Brûz said to Azkh.“You say you didn’t come up in the ranks, but you sure do sound like a Moria Uruk, don’t you?”

Azkh brought himself face to face to Brûz.“What is _that_ supposed to mean?” He demanded.

Brûz simply smiled and brought up his hands.“Noffin,” he said.“Must be runnin’ low on candy.”

Azkh pulled away on his board.“Toe the line, Olog,” he said to Brûz.“Captain, see that he does.”And with that, he zoomed away.

Maurice looked up at his big new friend with a concerned look.“What’re you doin’, big guy?”

Brûz looked off at Azkh and chuckled.“Aw, just blowing off some steam.”

“Testing the boundaries of the new chief, _neh_?” Maurice prodded.“Seeing what it takes for him to snap back?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, well, it’s not that blade of his you need to mind.It’s that phaser that will turn you into vapor and a memory,” Maurice said, and flashed the Olog a wicked smile and walked off.

 

“Yeah,” Brûz said to himself, “But I’ve got a shiny new toy of my own, don’t I?” and stomped forward.

 

 

***

 

 

_This is my church_

_This is where I heal my hurts…_

 

The red-horned devil led Ratbag into a interior space, where thumping sounds reverberated in his ears.Without even noticing, his head started nodding to the beat of…

Was it music? 

 

“It’s Wednesday,” he explained.“I open up the dance floor on Wednesday nights.I can’t do karaoke every night, it’d give me a splitting headache.”He looked down at Ratbag.“Speaking of, have you ever had a Sea Breeze?”

Ratbag opened his mouth, but nothing came out. 

“Okay.Let’s get you in the kitchen, and I’ll have Luis make you a sandwich or something.”

Ratbag sat at a small portable table in the kitchen.The kitchen was as different from the club as it was from the outside.Everything was white and steel and slightly cool and clean. 

“Oi,” he called after the red-horned devil.He swung his legs back and forth in his chair.

“Hmm?” he turned his neck back around at the entrance back into the club.

“What’s yer name?”

His red lips twisted into a smile.“Don’t worry, muffin.We’ll get there.But for now, you can say I’m the Host of this sanctuary.”And with that, the Host was gone.

“Okay,” a man in a white uniform, Luis, said behind Ratbag, causing him to start terribly.The man chuckled.“Easy, there, killer.I got cold cuts, corned beef, or turkey ready to go.You want a sandwich or what?”

Ratbag looked up at Luis.“Just…food.Please.”

Luis patted Ratbag on his shoulder.“Okay.”

In five minutes Luis presented Ratbag with his sandwich.Ratbag had no way of knowing, but it was one of Luis’ favorite and best: Ham and Swiss on marbled rye with tomato, romaine lettuce and garlic aoli.

Which is probably why he never bothered to savor Luis’ masterpiece when he tore into the thing with his jagged teeth, mayonnaise and tomato pulp dripping down his chin. In five minutes flat, there was nothing left of the sandwich but corn dust and lettuce scraps.

“Ha, ha,” Luis said.“There is no finer complement for a chef than the utter devouring of his craft.”He offered Ratbag a napkin.He just stared at it.“Here.For your chin.”He slowly, carefully took the napkin and wiped Ratbag’s chin for him.Ratbag sat there and let him, a confused look on his face.

“It’s all…” he struggled for the words.“I really am in another world, aren’t I?Everything here is so…”. He moved his hands, his brain incapable of finding the words.

“Alien?” The Host reentered the kitchen, two drinks in his hands.“Here’s that Sea Breeze I told you about.”

“Alien,” Ratbag repeated.“Is that what the everything-different about a place is called?Because this place…It’s everything that Mordor wasn’t.Well…” Ratbag shrugged.“A merchant’s a merchant, and grub’s grub, and all that, but everything looks and feels wrong, it’s twisted and cold and blue…”He looked up at The Host.“Is it like this everywhere?”

“Breathe,” The Host told him.“And drink up.I had Thy’an whip that up for you special.And, you know…now that you’re out here…there’s a lot more everywhere to see.It’s a lot bigger universe than you thought.”

_Universe_ , Ratbag thought, and a word suddenly came to him. This happened to Orc and Uruks every once in a while, where a flash of knowledge would come to them, and, in typical fashion, they would shrug it off.In the mountains, they had a word for it. _Ghakk-lagal._ But in Ratbag’s case, it was one word. 

 

_Eä._

 

“Another world, but still out in it,” Ratbag slowly said, working out the logic.“And there is another world, and another, and another.Like them bubbles in your drink.”

Ratbag took the glass.The liquid within was slightly pink-tinted with some sort of green fruit floating on top.He downed it in one.

“Oh, that’s some sour grog, that is,” he murmured. 

“That’s the grapefruit juice—I told him to use the Ruby Red,” The Host replied, still sipping on his own drink. 

“Ooh,” Ratbag groaned, putting a hand up to his head.The Host and Luis both noticed the ugly metal staples that ran along one side of his temple.

“That must have been one nasty blow to your coconut, there,” The host remarked.

“Oh, that.Naw.Ratbag’s got a harder head than you’d fink.”And with that, he giggled to himself.

“Okay.Luis, when he’s ready, take him back to the spare room.I gotta see if someone’s picking him up.”And with that, the Host left again.

Ratbag looked back up at Luis.“Can we get another sammich?” he asked, as Luis nodded.

 

***

 

Rott Ag’ta had just settled into his barstool in the Sini*Star Diner when his communicator beeped.

He glared at it as he flipped it open.“Make it good,” he said.

“Captain Ag’ta, we need your help,” Xurek said.“One of the pods has spontaneously revived one of the orcs, and he’s lost.”

Rott inhaled deeply and exhaled through his graying canine snout.“And everyone else?”

“All points are searching, including your Starfleet colleagues,” Xurek replied.

“Understood.I’ll be in touch shortly.Ag’ta out.”And before Xurek could protest the urgency of the situation, Rott closed his communicator and put it back in its holster.

“…After I have this Limbo Cooler,” he said, as the robo-bartender put the drink on its coaster in front of him.He smiled toothily as he picked up his drink.

 

***

 

 

Bradley arrived at Aud’s Bods as quickly as he could.A bell jangled as he entered the shop, and he walked over to the vacant checkout counter.“Hello?” he called into the boutique.“Gatsby?”

“Over here, Professor!” Gatsby bellowed from the back. 

Bradley navigated through the racks of clothes to find Gatsby talking to an alien woman, presumably Aud, as he folded a stack of T-shirts.

“Professor Bradley Reid, this is Aud,” Gatsby introduced her. 

Bradley nodded.“Yes, we met when we were shopping for Brûz’s clothes.Hello again.”

“Hi,” Aud said.“Welcome back to the shop.Now can you tell me what’s going on?”

“We found Ratbag and the others on a satellite in orbit of Arda,” Bradley explained.“They were in possession of a man—I _think_ it was a man—called Talion who seemed to be in charge of Minas Morgul on the surface below.”

“In cryogenic storage?” Aud asked.

Bradley and Gatsby nodded.

“And you came here to thaw them out?” Aud pressed.

“That was the plan, but apparently Ratbag’s pod had other ideas,” Bradley sighed.

“All right.I’d still like to see this Azkh guy, see what he’s all about.At any rate, I think I’ve got your Ratbag safe and sound at Caritas III.”

Bradley was confused.“Caritas III?He’s on another planet?”

“No no no, It’s not a planet, it’s a place here on Fence,” Aud clarified.“It’s considered a kind of sanctuary.Anti-violence magics are set up all around it.”

“I see.”He looked back at Gatsby.“How do the two of you know each other?”

“Oh!She sells the vintage clothes I find,” Gatsby explained.“Old shirts with cartoons characters on them are very popular here in Limbo.”

“And if I may ask, Miss, how you’re so familiar with Arda yourself?” Bradley asked Aud.

“My work has occasionally required me to have dealings with Arda,” Aud explained.“And it’s a good point of order not to anger the local Forces of Darkness—and Sauron’s as dark a force as you can find around these parts.”

“As a shopkeeper?” Bradley asked, eyebrow raised.

“Like your colleague, I moonlight in other areas,” Aud retorted. “Let’s just keep it at that.”

“All right,” Bradley said, rubbing his hands together.“Gats, if you’re done lining your pockets, we can go to this Caritas, and hopefully get our lost lamb back to Mr. Azkh.I do hopeCaptain LeBeau is doing all right with Brûz, though.”

“The Troll?” Aud asked.

“The Olog-hai, yes,” Bradley affirmed with a nod.“He was…not in the best mental shape when he was revived.”

Aud blinked a few times.“Why doesn’t that surprise me?”She paused for a few minutes.“I’m going to close up.I think you need me to join you.”

“Aw, Aud, that’s okay.You don’t have to put yourself out…” Gatsby said.

“No…I think it’s pretty clear you need help.”Aud grabbed a light jacket and her keys.“Computer, close mode.”

The lights of the shop dimmed and switched to a dark red color.She made her way to the entrance and opened it for them.As they exited, a security wall shut over the front of the store with a quick slamming sound.

“Business was slow today anyway,” Aud said, and gestured toward the club.“After you?”

 

***

 

Ratbag lay in the bed that The Host provided for him.It was comfortable as anything he had ever lay on.He clung to the bedsheets on top, but his eyes didn’t seem to want to close.He simply stared up at the ceiling, the patterns up there making no more sense than anything else he’d seen so far. 

He didn’t want to sleep.

He didn’t want to dream. 

When he was…before…he kept dreaming of a house by the sea.A house he didn’t think he ever set foot in, but there it was, and there he was, in a house by the Sea of Nurnen.He spent his days waiting for…something, but it never came.In some of the dreams, he thought he saw a figure, walking toward him in a field full of yellow flowers.In others, he saw devastation from the north, from Barad-dur. 

What was the house?

Was it another _Ghakk-lagal_ , a memory of another life, another time?

Ratbag’s thoughts weren’t that deep.Not in his waking life, anyway.

He didn’t want the deep thoughts.He didn’t want the questions. 

 

_How did I get here?_

_Who did this to me?_

_Why did_ he _do this to me?_

_Why didn’t he—_

 

Ratbag sniffled and blinked.“No.” he said to himself.“I don’t want to.” 

 

In another room, The Host sat at his office.Out in the club, business continued as usual.With the whole Ratbag business, he didn’t feel like pressing the flesh.His people could be trusted to run things without him walking the floor.

“Lorne.”

He looked up to find Aud the shopkeeper with two male companions in his office.He put his paperwork aside.

“Can I offer you a drink?”

They shook their heads no.

“Okay, just me then.”He took a sip at a bottle of water on his desk.“Are you here for our little Party Goblin?”

“Is he all right?” Gatsby blurted. 

“He’s a little disoriented, little culture shocked, but we’re trying to keep him calm,” The Host replied.“So what’s the story?”

Bradley looked sidewise at The Host, pursed his lips in thought.He moved in front of Aud and leaned down at him.“Twinkle, twinkle, little star…” He sang tunelessly, to the confusion of the other two. 

“All right, all right, that’s plenty,” The Host said, putting a hand to his head. 

“You’re Krevlorneswath, of the Deathwok Clan,” Bradley surmised.“You’re an oracle.”

“ _Was_ an oracle,” Lorne sighed.“After your last apocalypse, I decided to retire from it.What are you a professor _of_?”

“Ancient interstellar civilizations,” Bradley replied.“But I dabble in occult studies as well.”

“ _Mazel tov_ ,” Lorne quipped.“So where’s the orc liberator?”

“He’ll be along,” Bradley replied.“Thank you again for your hospitality.”

“Did I…miss something?” Gatsby asked.

“Lorne’s an empath,” Aud explained.“Anytime someone sings for him, he can read them and help them decide their path.”

“Oh.”

 

Luis popped his head into the office.“Lorne?”

Lorne looked around the trio to Luis.“Yeah?”

“The bouncers have a bit of a situation at the door.”

 

 

When they got back into the club, the mood had changed.The music had stopped, the dancers stood still, looking toward the door.That’s when they started to hear it.The loud banging sounds, and a low guttural grunting.The bouncers stood within, looking unsure.

“What is it?” Lorne asked, looking just as confused.

“Someone is beating at the outside,” one of the bouncers, a Naussican, said.

“They can’t penetrate the protective field with violence,” Lorne explained to Bradley.

“The Furies?” Bradley asked.

Lorne nodded.

Bradley turned and listened.Between the banging, he could hear the incoherent yells of someone who was trying hard to exert themselves on something. 

And the voice sounded familiar.

“Oh my god,” he said, quietly.“It’s Brûz.”

 

 

 

Outside, an out-of-breath Maurice got to Caritas.Brûz managed to outpace him as soon as he got a firm hold of Ratbag’s scent.“Getting…too…old for this,” he gasped.He found the Olog pounding his fists upon the facade of the building the club was inside.It left dents in the front, and debris littered the area where he had smashed the front in.However, he didn’t seem to do any real damage, as every time he pounded his fists, a glowing purple field rippled over the building.This only enraged Brûz further.

“He’s going to hurt someone,” Maurice muttered.“Or himself.Brûz!” he yelled.

Brûz didn’t respond.

Maurice moved closer, past the gathering crowds.“Come on, man!you’re gonna hurt yourself!”

Brûz stopped and looked down at Maurice.“I don’t think so.”

“What are you doing?”

Brûz smiled, revealing his sharp teeth.“He’s in there.Hiding.Cowering.Just another fort to hide in.”

_Oh god_ , Maurice thought. _We thought Brûz was okay, but apparently he still was in a bad way._

It was then that Maurice decided to make a bad decision.

He hung back, giving Brûz the chance to strike out again.He found a bench and sat down, never keeping his eyes off of the Olog.He began to breathe deeply. 

He Leaped.

 

But he never connected.The rage within the Olog was such that he could not synchronize with Brûz, and he was deflected. 

He was bounced back within his own body and gasped.“Dammit,” he muttered. 

“Maurice!” the deep voice of Rott Ag’ta came upon him with deep footfalls.“By the three Crosses…can’t you control him?”

Maurice shook his head.“He’s too enraged.Too much adrenaline.It repels my Leap state.”

“Then we’re just gonna have to do this the old fashioned way,” Rott said, and brandished his twin blades.With a guttural yell, he ran towards the Olog, as people scattered left and right.He jumped, kicking off the wall, and barreled toward Brûz’s center.He landed a solid hit, and hit the ground rolling.Brûz doubled over momentarily, then glared with rage at the Cainian.

“So that’s how it is?” He growled at Rott.“You wanna go?”

“I’ve had three Limbo Coolers,” Rott replied, wiping a bit of spittle off his mouth.“I most _definitely_ wanna go.”

With that, he jumped up again, aiming this time to connect his boot to Brûz’s head.It only partially hit, mostly striking Brûz’s more protected shoulders, causing him to not quite stick his landing, hitting the force field surrounding Caritas, and landing like a sack of potatoes.

 

“So much for the Big Dog,” Brûz chuckled.“RATBAG!” he bellowed.“Get OUT HERE!”

 

Before he could raise his fists again, he was struck from above and behind him. 

 

Kaitlin Riley, in her Red Armor, flew down from above firing her beam weapons at the Olog, hoping to stun him into submission.She hoped to dive-bomb him and pull up before he could react.

But Brûz’s reflexes were better than she anticipated.He grabbed her legs and flung her away, causing her to fight against her momentum and land several blocks away.She made another run, hoping for another tack. 

“HEAVY MODE,” she commanded her armor.Flying in low, she barreled into Brûz, knocking him back quite a bit before he pushed back. 

“Is this how you get people to calm down?” he taunted them.“It’s not working, I gotta say.”

Maurice continued to sit, weakened, on the bench nearby.He looked on as Rott and Kaitlin continued to try to subdue Brûz. 

God, he hoped it wouldn’t come to deadly force.

“Captain!”

Maurice looked up to see Azkh looking down at him.He looked concerned and a little frightened. 

“Couldn’t get him to toe the line,” Maurice said. 

“He’s trying to get them to kill him,” Azkh realized.“What your kind used to call ‘Suicide by cop’.”

“I think we need to work together,” Maurice said.

“If maximum stun won’t subdue him, we may have to physically injure him,” Azkh said.“I don’t want to—“

“No, _listen_ to me!” Maurice said.“We have to work together, you an’ me.Do you trust me?”

Azkh turned to Maurice.“All right.”

 

 

“What is going on out there?” Bradley asked. 

“Looks like a Cainian and someone in SilverHawk armor is fighting your Troll out there,” Aud told him.

“Captain Ag’ta!” Gatsby exclaimed.“And Commander Riley!”

“I wonder if Brûz’s agitated state is keeping Captain LeBeau from Leaping into him,” Bradley said.

“Well, this is gonna be fun to explain to the insurance claim guys,” Lorne sighed. 

“Quick!” Gatsby said.“Knock me out!this is a job for Criss Damon!”

“You can’t,” Lorne said.“Violence doesn’t happen in here.It’s part of the sanctuary spell.”

“Dammit!” Gatsby cursed.

 

“Let me go out there,” a low voice said from behind them.

It was Ratbag.

“Just…lemme go.”

 

Gatsby turned to him.“No way, buddy!They’ve got this covered out there!”

Bradley turned to look at Ratbag.He looked unlike the other Uruks he’d seen in their pods.Smaller, leaner.Much like Mr. Azkh in comparison to his larger brethren in Moria.To be able to get by with those disadvantages, he thought, would require a deep survival instinct.

“Just let him,” Ratbag said, quietly.“This world.I-It’s not meant for me.”

 

“BRÛZ!” a voice called out on the other side of the doors.

 

“Who’s that?” Ratbag asked.

 

It was Azkh.

 

He stood before the doors in front of Brûz, looking up at the Olog, his bat’leth still strapped to his back. 

“This _has_ to stop,” Azkh said.“You can’t just rampage through this place because you hold a grudge.”

“You think you know me, _Accountant_?” Brûz sneered.“I rather think I hold all the cards here.You’re gonna do what I say, If you wanna keep me happy and docile.”

“That’s not how this works,” Azkh said.“You are awake and free to move about at my wish.You’re my responsibility now.”

“Oh, is that what the ‘Bright Lord’ said?” Brûz replied, and mocked,“‘Take care of them, Azkh, they’re my ickle children’!Fah!”

 

Within, Ratbag began to shudder. 

 

“You’re forgetting something,” Azkh said.

“What’s that?” Brûz asked, putting his hands on his hips.

“Me,” Azkh’s voice changed, and the smirk on his lips was not Azkh’s at all.

It was Maurice’s.

“I don’t want to do this, _mon ami_ ,” Maurice said with Azkh’s voice.“Not after what was done to you before.But you have to put an end to this!”

 

Brûz paused a moment.Looked at the orc and knew the human he himself shared a body with was in there.“You know what the Gravewalker did to me.But I think I know you by now.You humans don’t go in for blood when you don’t have to.So let’s see what you got.”With that, Brûz brought a fist up to bear against Azkh/Maurice and got ready to hammer down on them once more.

He didn’t see the electric blue glint in their eye.

 

Kaitlin did.She saw it once before, when Maurice used his powers in ways he never wanted to unless pushed to his limits.

Rott did as well.He remembered it being the last thing he saw before the incident which switched his and Kaitlin’s bodies occurred. 

 

Azkh/Maurice leaped up and reached out with their left hand.Maurice had, long ago, studied with at least one Vulcan on the mechanics of their mind-meld technique, and the possibilities of it being taught to other telepathic species, or those of a telepathic nature.He of course didn’t think of himself as such, but, as an engineer, he tended to think of knowledge as a tool in the old toolbox.

And Azkh himself felt the possibilities of orc-kind tapping into the abilities of their genetic forebears was more than remote.

So they found the points on Brûz’s face that corresponded to that meld configuration and hoped for the best.

 

To be sure, Maurice was no true Wraith in the way that Celebrimbor was to Talion, and his purpose was not to subjugate Brûz, or to shame or to humiliate him, but to simply calm him down. 

From his vantage point, Maurice could see the electric blue handprint that still remained on Brûz, a permanent mark that even his Leaping could never erase.Whether he (or Azkh for that matter) liked it or not, Brûz was branded for life. 

But who held the leash, now, was another matter. 

Azkh, now asserted himself.(Mind me now,) he said into the link.(Whatever this is, whatever this was, Let. It. GO.)

(I…I _need_ it,) Brûz sent back.(What _am_ I if I’m not rage and power and death and whatnot?)

(Let’s find out,) Azkh said, and Maurice could feel the warmth of his inner smile.(Together.)

A long pause followed.Azkh remained patient.( _Je suis désolé_ ,) Brûz sent, finally.

(I know.)

And with that, it was over. 

Brûz knelt down before Azkh.Tears welled up in his eyes once more.“I don’t know what I want,” he said, quietly, to him.

Azkh put his hand—his other hand—on Brûz’s other cheek, the one that wasn’t branded.“It’s going to be all right now.”

 

Maurice leaped back into his body. He walked up to Brûz and extended his arms.“Friends?”

Brûz gathered him up in a bearhug that only an Olog could convey. 

“Oof!” Maurice exhaled, and Brûz let go a little.“Down, big guy!”

Bradley gingerly exited Caritas, walked past Azkh and stood by Brûz’s other side.“Let’s get you back to the ship, Brûz,” he said to the Olog. 

“Yeah, awright,” Brûz complied. 

The three ambled away.

 

Azkh turned to the entrance of the club, and found its owner surveying the damage. 

“Ah, geez.The insurance is not gonna cover all of this,” Lorne grumbled. 

“I am so sorry—“ Azkh began.

“Ah-ah!” Lorne cut him off.“Three notes, please.”

Azkh began to dig into his pockets.

“ _Musical_ notes?” Lorne clarified.

“Three blind mice,” Azkh sang, still looking confused.

Lorne smiled.“Thank you.”

 

Behind Lorne, Gatsby loomed.Aud was next to him.She quickly got in front and faced Azkh.“I suppose you have some kind of plan for these orcs?” She said, skepticism steeped in her voice.

“I think I have a longer way to go than I thought,” Azkh admitted. 

“Well, it looked like you were way in over your head,” Aud said.“But you put yourself in harm’s way to help him.You have a freakin’ huge bat’leth on your back and you never reached for it.You could have struck him down, and you didn’t.”

“We’re a broken people, miss,” Azkh said.“But we don’t have to be forever.”he looked back to the receding Brûz and company.“We can be something new.”

Azkh turned back to find someone new standing before him.

Ratbag slowly walked up to Azkh, with the others stepping out of his way.Warily, he looked up at Azkh, as if to gauge his intentions.

Azkh smiled at him.“Hi.My name is Azkh.”He reached out his arm.

And exhaled quickly as Ratbag wrapped his arms around him tightly, like a drowning man holding on to a buoy.

“Well!” Azkh exclaimed, sounding slightly short of breath.“Nice to meet you too!”

Ratbag held on to him a moment longer, until Azkh put his hand on his shoulder, and made eye contact.Ratbag’s eyes were a luminescent green, slightly shot with red. 

Ratbag, for his part, never thought he saw orc eyes like this Azkh before. They were the color of amber, and filled with…

He’d never seen _kindness_ in eyes that color before.

But then, as he began to disengage from Azkh and those eyes, something felt…wrong.

Everything went dark.

“Ratbag?”Azkh said, concern creeping into his voice.It was the last thing Ratbag heard before silence befell him.

 

Gatsby turned around and saw Ratbag begin to slump.Azkh attempted to hold on to him as he seemed to pass out. 

Dark blood began to come out of his nose and ears. 

 

“Omigod, Ratbag!” Gatsby exclaimed.“Azkh, we gotta get him to a hospital…”

Lorne was already on the case.“Medical emergency in front of Caritas III?No, not this time, looks like he might have had a stroke or aneurysm…please hurry!”

 

“No,” Azkh said quietly as he attempted to make Ratbag’s still form comfortable.“Not like this.”He put his left hand on Ratbag’s cheek as he waited for Fence’s emergency techs to arrive.

“Not like this.”


	6. UFO Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ratbag and Azkh grow closer. The Twenty-five face the first of their Troubles, and come together. 
> 
> Change is good.

Sunlight.

Streaming through a window.

 

The steady drone of insects outside.

The distant jangling of a wind chime.

 

It was about the fifteenth morning that Ratbag had woken up to this.

 

He still hadn’t gotten accustomed to sleeping under the covers of the bed he was given.He lay on top, wearing a black shirt that big, enthusiastic young Man had lent him, and a gray pair of ‘sweating pants’.

“Ratbag?”

He sighed.

Azkh walked in and opened the curtains.“Another nice, clear morning.We have to take advantage of those while they last, right?”

Ratbag grunted.

“Think I can convince you to leave this room today?” Azkh put a plate on the small table next to the bed. 

“I’unno,” Ratbag grumbled.

“I mean, I understand.You came to after suffering a hematoma from apparently getting hit by the most deadly mace known to orc-kind.To add insult to injury, that hematoma also triggered a mild stroke and some hemmorhaging, which gave us all a fright.Even your not-quite-a-friend Brûz was concerned for you.” 

Ratbag scoffed. 

“Though he only expressed it in French.”Azkh chuckled.“Um, we have sausage and eggs for breakfast.If you want something from the garden, I have melons and strawberries…we could be sipping on Sea Breezes at noon.”

“That sour grog?” Ratbag jerked his head up to look at Azkh, making as sour a face.

“Or, something else, if you prefer.”

Ratbag rested his head again.

Azkh sighed and knelt down by the bed, at the same eye level as his guest.“I want you to be comfortable while you’re in my home, but I need you to tell me what you need. 

Ratbag said nothing. 

Azkh smiled wistfully and got back to his feet.“Well, if you change your mind, I’ll be around.”He moved to the door.“Enjoy your breakfast.”

 

Azkh slumped as he walked out into the hallway.He moved into the main foyer and walked into the hanging garden.The morning coolness greeted him as he walked toward his strawberry plants. 

 

“Good morning.”

 

Azkh looked up to find one of the other Olog-hai in the garden with him.

“Good morning, Az-harto,” he said.

Az-harto had a blueish complexion, in contrast to Brûz, and his face was darkened by tribal face paint.His green eyes glinted in contrast.

“He still has not left your house,” he said to Azkh.

“No,” Azkh agreed. 

“Hurm.And still will not speak?”

Azkh shook his head. “Not really.”

“That is most unlike him.Most days he would speak almost incessantly.I would have to make loud noises to get him to be silenced.”

“HA!” Azkh laughed loudly, before stifling himself.

“We have things in common, Mr. Azkh,” Az-harto noted.

“Is that right?” Azkh replied.

“We both care for him in our way,” Az-harto continued.“For all his annoyances…”

“Why, Ranger, you big softie,” Azkh teased.“Don’t worry.I won’t tell.”

Az-harto nodded. 

“But if you have any idea to draw him out, I’m all ears.”

The Olog considered.“I will…think on it.”And with that, he wandered off.

 

 

As Azkh continued to examine his garden—the Lisianthus had grown slightly wild in his absence—He heard a guttural hum from around the corner.He wandered slowly, as to not to disturb what was surely one of his other guests.

It was G’nash the Blessed.Formerly of the Mystic Tribe.

 

The Uruk was dressed in a light linen cloak and sat in the middle of his succulents.His closed eyes slowly opened to reveal a brilliant blue.

“Brother Azkh,” he said, slowly.“The day greets you.”

Azkh nodded at him.“Are you comfortable?” he asked.“The plants there are known for their thorns.”

“With nature, one must accept the thorns as well as the sweet smell of blossoming,” G’nash replied.“It is necessary to truly commune with this world.”

“I didn’t mean to interrupt your meditation,” Azkh said, backing away.“Forgive me.”

“No, no, Brother!” G’nash exclaimed brightly.“It is meant for you to meet me.For I have news that may trouble you.”

Azkh frowned.“Oh?”

He reached for Azkh’s arm and grasped it tightly.“The first of the Troubles are coming,” G’nash said, his voice darkening, his eyes turning stormy.“The Nameless One seeks retribution.The White One.The Firstborn Killer.He will try to destroy what you create.”

Azkh looked away. 

“What will you do?” G’nash asked.

Azkh continued his stroll.“We will survive.”

 

Azkh walked past the garden and looked back at his house.His remote house in a forest in a remote part of space. 

He knew, once that he took on the responsibility of the twenty-five Uruks and Ologs that he would have to leave his home. 

But if G’nash was correct, his time grew shorter and shorter all the time.

 

“So I overheard the augur talkin’.”

 

Brûz was dressed in short trousers and had his top half bare.He looked for all the world as if he had started his morning jog.

 

“ _Nameless One.Firstborn Killer_.That’s a deep dark enemy for someone as high-and-tight like you, Big Brother,” he remarked offhand.“Something we need to know?”

“I used to work for him,” Azkh said.“I ran his books and he left me alone.Then he decided to get a bit more ambitious and switch from piracy to terrorism.Not long ago, he was almost captured by three Klingon commanders…whom I helped.”

“A double-cross?I like it already,” Brûz commented.

“In retribution, he arranged the death of their firstborn sons,” Azkh finished.He sat down on a bench.Brûz knelt down beside him.“I quit his service soon after.”

“So…” Brûz said.“Piracy and crime, you were alright with.But killin’ babies, not so much?”

“The parting was a long time coming,” Azkh scoffed. 

“And now he’s coming to pay you back,” Brûz surmised.“Well, If I were you, I’d start using that big brain of yours to come up with a plan.Maybe—“ And Brûz’s scarred face twisted into a smile—“Tap into that family background in military strategy for once instead of maths and ledgers.Eh?”And with that, Brûz jogged off toward the tree-covered mountains west of the house.

Leaving Azkh alone. 

He looked back to the house once more.It was pale beige stucco with a metal roof, and patterns etched onto tiles around the windows and door. 

He loved his house in the middle of nowhere.

 

Well, whether he liked it or not, it was a fort now.

 

The twenty-five tended to stick to their own various tribes, Azkh noted. With the exception of Az-harto, Brûz, and, of course, Ratbag.For the most part, Azkh allowed them to roam where they wanted on the property.Only a couple of them asked to stay in his house, which he graciously allowed.Zaga the Bard and Kaszh the Tark-defiler were surprisingly well kept.The rest picked up where they left off and used the resources of the land to create shelter.Most fortunately, the habitat was mostly free of prey animals and herds of creatures roamed the plains north of the valley.Before he could even take note, within a week the three Feral Tribesmen came back with bounty enough for all and skins for shelters. 

Azkh was always welcome in their camp.

“Azkh!”

It was Vak the Arcane, the second of the three Mystics.The Mystic Tribesmen took on the role of elders among the twenty-five.

“Vak!” Azkh greeted back. 

“Do you see our progress, Brother?” Vak asked.

“I do indeed,” Azkh agreed. 

“When my Mystic brothers were…touched by the Bright Lord,” Vak began, “Our connection to the magicks were changed.We felt a deeper connection to the life around us, instead of the tendrils of death and decay.Many of the enthralled Mystics despaired in this, but we three embraced it.You have seen G’nash this morning?”

Azkh nodded.“I have.He gave me a grave warning.”

“Have you come to verify his vision?” Vak asked.

“No,” Azkh replied.“I’m sure that the Albino will send people to punish me.”

“How fortunate that you have members of the Dark Tribe to prepare for their attack,” Vak pointed out.“And of course an Olog of the Warmonger Tribe as well.You have been blessed by the Bright Lord as well.”

Azkh looked over as two members of the Machine Tribe began to set up another shelter.“Perhaps,” he said. 

“If not the Nameless One,” Vak prodded, “What troubles you, Brother?”

“Many things, these days,” Azkh admitted.“You need not be my confessor, Brother Vak.”

Vak nodded and beckoned him into one of the shelters.“Come.”

Vak bade him sit in the center of the shelter.“When I was awakened on that faraway world,” Vak said.“I was afraid at first.Nothing was as it was.But I opened my heart to the possibilities of change.That is your driving words, is it not?”

Azkh nodded.“Once one is changed, they cannot go back to how they used to be.”

“Quite right.And so, once we embraced the changes, we embraced the nature of things to change.From Fence, we twenty-five were ferried here, to your home.Here we make sense of the changes, and to embrace them as best we can.”

“I understand that, Vak, but what does that have to do with me?”

“ _Everything_ , Brother!” Vak exclaimed.Change begets change here, and you, too are due to be changed once more.So I ask again: what troubles you?”

“There’s someone out there,” Azkh began.“Someone I care about deeply.But there is blood between us, and it’s his.”

Vak looked at Azkh curiously.“Go on.”

 

“My brother is Azog the Defiler,” Azkh said.“He fell in Erebor in the Battle of the Five Armies, I’ve come to learn.He was killed by the Dwarf King, who was in turn slain.But this person was also killed that day at Azog’s hand.His blood is on my blade.”

Vak nodded. “But you are not his killer.”The Mystic stood up.“This isn’t about your guilt.This is about your path.You are embarking on a new adventure.You are going where this person you love cannot follow.”

Azkh nodded. 

“Make no mistake, Azkh.There will always be a home for you with the Khazad healer, but your road will pave the way for a new home for orc-kind, for all of us.And, of course, the other place in your heart.”

“What do you mean?” Azkh said.

Vak scoffed.“Now you’re just insulting my intelligence,” he said, and circled around behind Azkh.“The sickly little Uruk you’ve been nursing to health in your house?”

Azkh smiled to himself.“I guess you don’t need a crystal ball for that.”

“Also, Kaszh fills me in from time to time,” Vak replied with a shrug.

“Why is he so sad?”Azkh asked quietly. 

“Because of the place in his own heart,” Vak replied. 

Azkh bowed his head.“What should I do?”

“Cultivate your garden.Let the Poor Man’s Rose bloom,” Vak said, his eyes widening and brightening.“Let hurts heal and fade.And, of course, prepare."

 

 

By the time Azkh got back to the house, the sky had grown overcast and raindrops began to fall.The sound of the rain hitting the forest canopy was always soothing to Azkh and he left the windows open to take the sound in. 

As he entered the foyer, he heard the sound of slipping on the smooth wood floor, and before he realized, Ratbag collided into him sending them both to the floor, a tangle of limbs. 

“What—“ Azkh spluttered.“What were you doing?”

“Ratbag was just looking for the room with the big picture,” Ratbag said by way of explanation, then accused,“Your floors are too slippery!”

Azkh sighed and moved Ratbag’s stocking feet out of his face as he struggled to get up.“Could you… _could you get your feet out of my face_ , you little _p’tak_!?”

Ratbag laughed raucously as Azkh dusted off his pant legs and stood up. 

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

“First time seeing you get pissed off since…” Ratbag trailed off.

“Yeah, well, “ Azkh grumbled. 

“What’s a _p’tak_?” Ratbag asked.

“It’s something a Klingon calls you when you’re getting on their nerves,” Azkh replied. 

“Haven’t met any of them yet, right?” Ratbag asked. 

“Not yet,” Azkh said, and rolled his eyes.

“ _You’re_ tetchy,” Ratbag said, sulkily. 

“Okay, you know what, come here,” Azkh said, grabbing Ratbag’s arm.

“Oi!” the Uruk protested as he was dragged down the hall.

He pulled Ratbag into his study, and closed the door. “Sit down,” he told him.He grabbed a volume from the bookshelf and flipped through it.“There.”

He placed the album in front of Ratbag, and pointed at two Klingons, one male, one female.“Ku’rod and Nalest,” he told him. 

“Klingons?” Ratbag asked.

“They raised me from a orcling,” Azkh said.See?”

He pointed at the little pale-skinned child at their feet. 

“Aw, look at you!” Ratbag cooed.Azkh grinned. 

Right, now watch this.He pressed on the photo, and it came to life, Ku’rod and Nalest hoisting up little Azkh up with their arms, screeching with delight, and bringing him back down. 

“This pale child will do great things,” Nalest proclaimed.“He has the blood of a warrior.”And then the photo reset.

“Cor,” Ratbag said.“You had a mum and dad like the men-folk do.”

“For far too short a time,” Azkh said.“Orcs aren’t given a long childhood.”

“Or one at all,” Ratbag agreed.“If you’re from the pits.”He paused and continued to look at the Klingon couple.“So you grew up with them?”

Azkh shook his head.“I grew to maturity too fast.They eventually let me strike out on my own.”

“All by y’self?” Ratbag asked.

“All by myself,” Azkh affirmed.

“So why,” Ratbag asked, “Why’d you come back and grab us when you were free of all of it?”

Azkh scooped the album from off of Ratbag’s lap.“What do you mean?” he asked, putting the album away.

“You were doing fine on your own,” Ratbag said.“You got yourself learned up, and workin’ and being all smart and all that—why did you come back for us?”

“I guess, it was a matter of perspective,” Azkh said.“When I looked back at where I came from, I felt like orc-kind deserved better.”

“Hmm,” Ratbag grunted.“Where’s that picture room?” he asked.

“You want to watch something?” Azkh looked at Ratbag with amusement.“Do you know what my favorite old movie is?”

 

In the entertainment room, Azkh, Ratbag, and eventually Zaga sat in the fold-down theater chairs with bags of popcorn while Judy Garland sang on a trolley on the big screen. 

 

Zaga might have watched _Meet Me In St. Louis_ a few times by that point.Azkh figured it was so when he began to mouth the words to the Trolley Song precisely.

Azkh also was gratified to see Ratbag bounce along to the music as well. 

 

When the movie was over, Zaga was still humming as he wandered away, probably to serenade the camp.

And once again, Ratbag and Azkh were sitting next to each other.

“Do you want to watch another one?” Azkh asked him.

Ratbag began to crunch on the unpopped kernels in his bag. “Nyeh.”

“Music?”

Ratbag shrugged.

Azkh exhaled through his nose.Right back where they started from this morning.

“Do you want to take a walk?”Azkh looked at him intently.“Please.”

 

The rain was gentle, and Azkh took out a umbrella.Ratbag didn’t use it.He wandered out into the garden and looked at the hanging pots along the path. 

“You like flowers, do ya?” He asked Azkh.

He nodded. 

He looked down at one of the Lisianthus, then back at Azkh.“So what’s this about the Troubles?” he asked.

“What?”

“One of the Mystic blokes gave you a prophecy or whatnot,” Ratbag said.“Somefing about a Nameless, Firstborn killer.Gave you a right fright, it sounded like.”

“It means that some idiotic hired muscle is going to come here and try to either intimidate me to go back to the Albino, or threaten to kill me, or burn down everything I’ve built here,” Azkh said.

“Well, we’re not gonna let them do that, right?”Ratbag asked.“I mean, what’s the point of having all these Uruks around if you don’t let them do what they do best?”Ratbag was getting doused by this point, and his dark hair was slicked back, his shirt sticking to his chest.“Who all even knows they’re coming?”

“Well, look who finally came outside!” the distant booming of Brûz’s voice came over the garden’s trellis.His large head bobbed over the top in two or three Olog strides.Ratbag’s face darkened.

“He does, for one,” Azkh said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“ _Him!?_ ” Ratbag squeaked.

“And the Mystics, of course,” Azkh added.

“Naw, naw, naw, gotta get the Dark Tribe organized.They can move without being seen, under dark and shadow, they can,” Ratbag said. 

“I can’t argue with that,” Brûz said.“Can’t believe I’m _saying_ that.”

“Get Kaszh.Tell him what’s goin’ on, if he don’t know already.When they make fall, have his boys let loose,” Ratbag said, coming to life with his hands animated as much as the speed of his speech.

“Have ‘em captured, bring ‘em to the camp,” Brûz suggested.Let me take off one of ‘er heads.Your Nameless One’ll back _all_ the way off.”

“That’s barbaric!” Azkh said, recoiling.

“Hey,” Ratbag said, putting his hand on Azkh’s shoulder.“What would yer Klingon Mum an’ Dad fink if their little warrior got squeamish over one little beheading, eh?”

Azkh thought about it for a moment, then grimaced.“They wouldn’t want me to stop at a beheading,” he replied.“Depending on who he sends, we may have to cut out their heart…and eat it.”

“Now you’re _talking_!” Brûz exclaimed. 

“Now let’s talk defenses.Whaddaya got?”Ratbag asked.

“I have a level 4 deflector shield over the home,” Azkh replied. 

“Escape routes?” Ratbag pressed.Secure room?Emergency provisions in case you gotta wait ‘em out?”

“Guns?” Brûz interjected. 

“I have the Olog-sized rifles we secured from the satellite,” Azkh reminded him.“As for the rest…”

“If they can shoot worth a damn with a crossbow, they can fire a phaser,” Brûz said.“I’ll talk to the Dark boys and see what they fink.”

Azkh nodded, and half-waved Brûz away.

Ratbag glanced as the Olog left and circled around to face Azkh.“Can you trust him?” he asked.

Azkh nodded.“I couldn’t have gotten the twenty-five as settled without his help.That reminds me; There’s someone I want you to meet.”

The two of them walked back to the camp.Both Vak and G’nash waved at them. 

“Brother Ratbag!” Vak exclaimed.“The day greets you!”

Ratbag waved back, but looked at Azkh strangely.“What happened to them?Vak Poisonfist and G’nash the Cursed…”

“They’ve been changed by your ‘Bright Lord’, apparently,” Azkh replied.“In here.”

The two walked into the newly built shelter to find a robust Orc sitting on the ground.He smiled simply at them as they sat cross-legged in front of him.

“Good afternoon, 0G,” Azkh said.

“Greetings,” the Orc simply known as 0G replied back. 

“Zero-Gee?” Ratbag repeated.“What kind of name is that?”

“It’s not,” Azkh replied.“It’s a designation.We think that this fellow…was one of the original orcs created, thousands of years ago.He’s your prototype.”

Zero-Gee, like Azkh himself, had a relatively smooth, unblemished appearance.His teeth were even, and his eyes were clear. 

A little too clear, Ratbag thought.

“Dûnder has been instructing me in the construction of the shelters,” Zero-Gee said to Azkh.“I want to be useful to the camp.”

“I’d like you to come to the house soon,” Azkh told him.“We want to see if you have any prior memories to being stored on the satellite.”

“I’m still making sense of what happened,” Zero-Gee replied.“The star map you gave me was barely recognizable.”

“He can read star maps?” Ratbag exclaimed.“What else can he do?”

“That’s what I want to find out,” Azkh replied.“If my hunch is correct, he holds a great amount of knowledge of the Numenoreans.”He got back up.“We’ll speak soon, Zero.”

“All right.”Zero-gee smiled as the two exited the shelter.

 

The three Feral Tribesmen passed them by as they tried out the rudimentary smoker devised by the Machiners.With any luck, the meat they’d taken from the herd animals would be cured and turned into dinner. 

 

The walk back to the house was quiet, until they went back inside and Ratbag was dripping, and shivering.

Azkh looked at him, looking wet and pathetic, all the while trying to look unbothered. 

“You’re kidding me, right?” he said.

“Whut?” Ratbag replied.

“You are going to get sick again.Come on…” and once again Azkh dragged Ratbag down the hall, this time into the spacious bathroom.He walked onto the fluffy sage colored bathroom rug and turned back to the Uruk, and put his hands on his hips.“Okay, take it off while I start the shower.”

Ratbag continued to stare at Azkh, not taking off his wet clothes.

Azkh fiddled with the knobs until he got the right temperature, then looked over his shoulder.Ratbag just stood there.

“Ratbag?”

“You want me to what now?”

I’m running you a shower so you can get that cold rain off you and get dry.Come on…” he beckoned toward the stall.“Unless you prefer the tub.”

Ratbag’s nose wrinkled.“A-all right.”He peeled the soaking wet muscle shirt off, revealing a upper body that wasn’t as lean as it was that first day on Fence.Azkh’s cooking had given Ratbag a bit more bulk.His skin was beginning to clear, with scabs covering open sores.The staples that had stitched together his head were removed, and the scar from getting hit by the Hammer of Sauron had faded to a bright green line. 

Ratbag would never have said it, but he had never felt better in his own body in his life. 

He shyly began to fiddle with his sweat pants; the knot of the drawstring gave him a trouble with his clawed hands.

“Do you need help?” Azkh offered, stifling a laugh.

Ratbag hissed annoyingly in response.“If you wanted to see Ratbag in his skin, you could have just asked,” he muttered.

“I already have, you know,” Azkh replied. 

Ratbag abandoned the trousers for a moment, and began to peel his socks off.“No you haven’t; when?”

“When you were recuperating from that emergency surgery on Fence, remember?When we brought you here, you were unconscious and I had to care for you until you woke up.”

Ratbag stood there, socks in hand, his bare toes wiggling.“Oh.Yeah.”

Azkh walked past Ratbag, facing away.“I’m sorry, I’ll look away.”

“You sure you don’t wanna…” Ratbag began to ask.

“What?”

“I mean, it’s only fair, you seeing Ratbag in his skin, an’ all.”

Azkh rolled his eyes and smiled.“Get in there and get warmed up,” he told Ratbag.

Ratbag shimmied his pants down to his ankles, revealing a narrow rear end, and gingerly entered the stall.

“By GLOB that’s hot water!” he exclaimed. 

“That’s the way I like it,” Azkh said, removing his clothes. 

“Yeah, it’s so much better than slapping around in cold mucky puddles,” Ratbag said, his voice almost obliterated in the shower spray.

“You used to do that?” Azkh said, incredulously.

“Man-folk think we’re filthy,” Ratbag muttered.“But you gotta keep some bits clean or you’re gonna get smelled.So, you use whatever water you got.But, _ohhhh_ ,” he was practically moaning with pleasure.“I could stand under _this_ all day.

The stall opened up, and Azkh, pale skin, unblemished, no piercings, and those amber, kind eyes, was next to him in the spray.“Well?”

There’s no stealthy way to look someone up and down when they’re inches away from you, Ratbag found.So he just glanced down.

“You’re freeborn,” he said. 

Azkh nodded, and grinned.“Looks like you are too.”

“Lots of the Uruks and Orcs are made with…” Ratbag’s face deepened in color.“You know, the bits.” 

“Really?”Azkh replied.“Just the male bits?”He grabbed the soap and lathered up the sponge.“Turn back around.”

As Azkh scrubbed Ratbag’s back and legs, Ratbag kept talking.“If any of them are made with woman-bits, I’ve never seen.But freeborns…”

“I’ve only ever entered…” Azkh began.

“The Time?” Ratbag finished.

“Yeah,” Azkh said.“Once.All by myself, remember?”

Ratbag watched as Azkh began to take the sponge and scrub his ankles and the tops of his feet and toes.“You must have been a fright.”

“There was nobody.Not even anybody to scream at.Just me, in the woods, naked and screaming and howling.”Azkh shuddered under the hot spray.“And no one to share in it.”

“It’s hardest on the freeborn,” Ratbag said.“The ones that are made, they do fings to ‘em that make them… not do that.They focus that on being angry instead.”

“What about you, Ratbag?” Azkh took Ratbag’s shoulders to turn him around.“Have you ever…?’

Ratbag said nothing.

Azkh began to scrub his shoulders and chest, so that the foam came up around his neck.He took his free hand to wipe the foam down…

That’s when he noticed the redness in Ratbag’s eyes.

“I…” Ratbag began.“I had a clutch once.But they smashed them.The Captains can’t have their Uruks dropping eggs in the field.So,” He sniffled and wiped his nose.“That’s that, then.”

Azkh moved past Ratbag to turn the shower off, and grabbed the towels.He kept moving to speak, but found that the ‘I’m sorry’ kept catching in his throat. 

He began to towel the Uruk off, trying his best to be gentle.But before he could finish, Ratbag grabbed the towel and toweled himself off and wrapped himself in it. 

“I’m gonna go to bed,” he muttered and wandered out of the bathroom.

Towel-clad himself, Azkh followed Ratbag into his bedroom.

“Ratbag.”

Ratbag had buried himself in his bed.The covers were over his head.

“Leave me alone.”

“I will, but please let me say this.”Azkh sat on the side of the bed and put his hand on top of Ratbag over the covers.“What happened to you will _never_ happen again.Do you understand? ** _Never_**.We are going to be better and do better.I know that doesn’t change what happened to you but I wanted to say it.Okay?”

Ratbag seemed to fold himself under the covers.

“I’m going to retire to my room,” Azkh said.“If you want to talk some more, find me.”

With that, he stood up and left Ratbag alone. 

 

 

 

He went up the stairs tucked in the back of the house and collapsed on his bed.He crawled under the covers and grasped the body pillow. 

There was no moon around the planet they were on, but the nearby nebula bathed the night landscape with calming blue light.

But it didn’t calm Azkh.

He lay there in his bed, breathing in and out through his nose, He gripped his pillow tighter, burying his head in it.

A sniffle.

Then another.

And another.

Then his eyes, shut tight, began to burn.

He began to quietly sob into the pillow, the frustrations of the last two weeks finally taking their toll.

“Found you.”

Ratbag quietly had slipped into his bed.Azkh felt his callused hands wrap around his middle.He’d placed his chin on his shoulder. 

“Right, then.No cryin’.Rattie’s here,” Ratbag said.

And like that, the two slipped into sleep until the sunlight once again filtered through the curtains of Azkh’s bedroom.First Ratbag, then Azkh awoke to the sounds of birds and droning insects outside. 

The two locked eyes and smiled.“Morning,” Azkh croaked.

“Yeah,” Ratbag sighed and began to get out of the bed.He stretched, putting his arms up over his head.Azkh could still see traces of Ratbag’s ribcage from the back.

“More sausage and eggs?” Ratbag asked, scratching at his bare rear end.

“I wonder if they managed to cure that meat in the camp,” Azkh said.

“Maybe,” Ratbag said.“Unless—“

“Hmm?” Azkh propped himself up in the bed.

Ratbag lay back down beside Azkh.“We might wanna suss some things out, you an’ me.”

Azkh swallowed and nodded. 

“You puttin’ me in a bed, when them others are in a campground…what’s that about, then?” Ratbag asked.

“Well, you were recovering from the…incident on Fence, and…”

“Yeah, but that was noffin’,” Ratbag said, waving Azkh’s explanation off.“Two weeks after I opened my eyes, and I’m still here, aren’t I?”

Azkh’s eyelids fluttered.“I was waiting for you to—“

“See, no, no,’ Ratbag grumbled, shaking his head, but still giving Azkh a sly smile.“No.Come on, Azkh.We spent the night in bed together.”

Azkh reached out and took Ratbag’s hand.“I’m…I’m lonely, Rattie,” Azkh said, finally, after a long pause.“I have been for a very long time.Part of it is because I was the only one of my kind out here.Part of it is how I chose to live.I reached out to as many people from Arda as I could, and it…just never clicked.The Elf was amused but ultimately uninterested.Fíli was on his own path.The Istari terrify me out of hand.But I held it in my mind that I would work to get orc-kind away from that place, and that would save them all, and I would be rewarded by…not being alone in the universe anymore.But that wasn’t enough.”

Ratbag laced his fingers through Azkh’s.“Cryin’ and howlin’ all alone in the woods,” he said, remembering what Azkh had said earlier.

“They don’t care about making friends, back there,” Ratbag said, apropos of nothing.“I never got on with any of them, really.Then I met the Ranger, and I was like, ‘I’m gonna be a Warchief!’ and we actually worked to make it happen.”He turned to Azkh and rolled his eyes.“I better tell you right now; sometimes I say things that’s complete _shrakh_.And then I’m working so hard to _be_ the warchief but it’s not about making friends, mind, it’s about making them afraid of you. _Me!_ ”Ratbag laughed bitterly.“So when I got bonked in the…in the coconut, It was almost a relief because then I wasn’t in charge no more.”

“Responsibility’s another word for blame,” Azkh said, nodding.

“Yeah!Exactly!”Ratbag’s hands flew as he talked.“And—I mean, I didn’t even mean to do the Overlord thing with Ranger—you know, _my_ Ranger,” he added with a shrug.“But it sort of happened that we worked it out and…But I didn’t really want it then.And Ranger—“

“You know, he’s been worried about you,” Azkh said.“He and I’ve talked about you.”

“Now, don’t make fun,” Ratbag snapped.“He makes those funny noises, but it’s not _talkin’_.”

That _was going to be an interesting reunion_ , Azkh thought.“You were saying about Ranger?”

“Right.I know he stuck around because I saved his life, but…It’s _sort of_ like friendship, right?”

Azkh squeezed Ratbag’s hand.“It’s exactly like friendship.”

“And…Where was I going with this?” Ratbag muttered to himself.“I don’t—“

Azkh pulled Ratbag over to his side of the bed, and kissed him.It lasted a moment, and Ratbag pulled back to stare at Azkh, incredulously. 

“That’s _much_ more effective than making loud noises,” Azkh said.

“I don’t—“ Ratbag spluttered.

Azkh grabbed Ratbag’s other hand.“Hey.I like you.You’re likable.” He darted his eyes away as he laughed,“I think I liked you from the moment I saw you frozen on the satellite.”

Ratbag’s face turned a deep green and he had to look off.“You’re so nice to Ratbag, I…”He began to breathe deeply, wrought with emotion.Azkh worried he’d scared him with his admission.

“Do…you like me too?”He pressed.

“ _Yes!_ ”Ratbag exclaimed.“How can you have _eyes_ like that and not know how Ratbag feels?”

“What about my eyes?” Azkh looked confused.

“Eyes that…” Ratbag struggled to put words to his feelings.He ran his hands along Azkh’s arms.“That make Ratbag feel like you’d never hurt him.”

Azkh took his own hands and placed them on Ratbag’s cheeks.“Rattie, I would _never_ —“

“Rat— _I_ know,” Ratbag emphasized.“I thought the Ranger would never…but then he put Ratbag in a box.”He sat back down beside Azkh.“So now what?”

Azkh’s eyes widened.“I-I don’t know.This is new territory.Orcs aren’t in the habit of…” He looked over at Ratbag, who looked just as unsure.“Having a boyfriend.”

“So…” Ratbag smiled with realization.“No rules?”

“We make them up as we go,” Azkh said with a nod. 

“And what about alla _them_?” Ratbag asked. 

“Oh, they were on to us long ago,” Azkh replied with a sigh.“We weren’t fooling anybody but each other.”

“First rule?” Ratbag suggested. Azkh gestured for him to continue.

“Um…” Ratbag pursed his lips, causing the rings that pierced his lip to clink against the ring that pierced his septum.“Ratbag and Azkh will never hurt each other.”

“Good first rule,” Azkh agreed.“Second rule?”

“Yah?”

“Ratbag and Azkh will be there for each other, so they’ll never be alone.”

“Ah,” Ratbag sighed.“We’re doing great so far.”

“Yep.Hard part’s over,” Azkh agreed.“Now all we have to do is prepare for retaliation from the Albino, and get ready to plan this…ehhh…”

“Go on?” Ratbag prompted.

“Whatever it is we’re building.Society?Family?”

“Hmm,” Ratbag thought.“We’ll make up _those_ rules too.”

 

 

A bit later, Azkh fiddled with a shirt he hoped would fit Ratbag.It was a little loose in the shoulders, but the collar fit around his neck from the top button. 

“Now…” Azkh looked down at his feet, covered in white socks.“What about shoes?”

Ratbag looked pained.“Shoes…that cover Ratbag’s whole feet?” he whinged. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t subject you to anything I like to wear with the points,” Azkh assured him.“Rule Number One?”

“Rule Number One,” Ratbag repeated.

“So, maybe my pair of Chucks,” Azkh considered.“Or some kicks.”

They went with the kicks.

With Ratbag dressed a bit up, Azkh decided to wear his blue coat over one of Gatsby’s T-shirts. 

 

The two of them walked down to the makeshift village and looked for Vak. 

“Brother Azkh!” G’nash finally raised his hand.“The day greets you!”

“Brother G’nash,” Azkh said walking up to him.“Have you seen the Ologs?Brûz or Az-harto?”

“And Ranger, don’t forget about Ranger,” Ratbag prompted.

“We see them go up into the mountainsides,” G’nash replied.“In their free time.”

Azkh frowned.“Together?”

G’nash gave Azkh a knowing glance.“Stranger things have happened, Brother.”

Ratbag turned to Azkh.“Brûz and Ranger?They don’t even like each other, not after the whole kidnapping thing!”

“New rules,” Azkh said.“All right.We’ll catch up with them whenever they’re available.Do you know if Brûz made any headway with the Dark Tribesmen?”

“I know we had to put out several fires last night as they made themselves comfortable with your…guns,” G’nash replied with disdain.

“Oh,” Azkh responded with pursed lips.“Sorry about that, I should have given them better instructions.”

Ratbag seemed distracted.He began sniffing the air.“Do you…smell that?”

Azkh turned to him, and sniffed. The acrid smell of ozone hit him all at once.“Oh, that’s…like an electrical fire?”

G’nash turned to Azkh and grabbed his arm.“Now is the time, brother,” he said with his deepening voice.

As he did, a high-pitched whine flew overhead.

“GYAAAAAHHHH!” the roaring voice of Brûz became louder and louder.“They’re HERE!”

He had his rifle slung over his shoulder as he jumped down the mountain side, disturbing trees and brush alike.Right behind him was Az-harto, deftly making his way past the trees.

Azkh took out his communicator and put it to his mouth.“Defense priority one,” he said into it.They looked back to the house, and found a iridescent field around it, shining slightly like an enormous soap bubble.

Brûz stopped in front of G’nash and Azkh, and threw off a mock salute. He was short of breath. “They’re about five clicks up the mountain,” he gasped.“Got them ray guns… spitting out that green _shrakh_.They’re nasty buggers, with little things up and down their jaw.Purple and metal kit.”

“It’s them,” Azkh affirmed.“Are we ready?”

Zaga and Kaszh moved past them, already in dark cloaks and their faces obscured.Kaszh spoke.“We’re ready.Either find shelter, Azkh, or grab your blade and join us!”

“I believe you’re looking for this.”

Vak came up to them and held Azkh’s _bat’leth_. 

Azkh took the handle and whipped it around, contouring the blade to his arm.He turned to Ratbag, Az-harto, and Brûz. 

“We’re going to assume that the lot of you were a surprise to them.We’re going to work that to our advantage.Brûz.”

Brûz looked down at Azkh.“Yeah, Big Brovver?”

“You’re my War Chief.You and the Maurauders have got to take the offensive.Evade those disruptors.If they hit you, you are gone.Got it?”

“Right.”

“Az-Harto.”

Ranger looked down at Azkh, his eyes gleaming.

“You’re my Overlord.Shore up the defenses of the house.There’s a cannon turret about half a kilometer south of here.Keep those shields up.”

Ranger nodded.

 

“Vak.Between you and the other Mystics, you have the best connection to our environment.Can you use it to our advantage?”

“We can attempt some protection magicks, but we’ll see what else we can do.”

Azkh turned to his new boyfriend.“Ratbag.”

Ratbag looked slightly put out, hearing the titles he’d given the other two.He was also slightly terrified.“Yeah?”

Azkh placed a pair of twisted daggers into Ratbag’s hands before grabbing his face and placing a great big kiss on him.“You’re my Party Goblin,” he said to him.“Go.Make mischief.”

Ratbag smiled his jagged toothy smile as he popped his collar.“Right, then.”He ran down the hill to the center of the camp, where the Feral Tribesmen looked at him curiously.“All right!” he exclaimed.“We’re gonna get crazy!”

Two of them stood there, still looking at Ratbag, while a third, Krug the Allergic, threw his arms up exuberantly.“WOO!” he cried.

“Let’s go!” he said, and moved to work his way up the mountainside.

“WOO!” Krug whooped again.

“Awright, Nature Boy, reel it in,” Ratbag said, and the four of them all began their ascent.

 

Azkh looked on as they went, then turned to Vak, who had witnessed him kissing Ratbag.

“About _shrakhing_ time,” Vak said, and laughed as they made their way to the other mystics.

Azkh turned to Vak.“Where’s Zero-Gee?” he asked.

“With Dunder and Bender,” Vak replied, referring to the two Machine brothers. 

“Good,” Azkh said, and powered forward into the shelter.

When he did, Zero stood waiting them, the Machine brothers standing on either side. 

 

Azkh didn’t waste any time.“We’ve got probably three mid-sized cutter ships, armed with disruptors and photon missiles.He’ll have sent at least two dozen mercenary troops with disruptor or phaser rifles.”

“Ah,” Zero replied.“That would be a routine razing operation.With our resources, the correct response would be a guerrilla operation, hunkering in the local flora and drawing them in and cornering them one by one.The Disruptor Cannon can be used to dissuade the cutter ships, with your deflector array protecting your home base.”

Azkh nodded.“I’ve got the Marauders and Dark Tribesmen on the offensive.The Feral Tribesmen are going low.”

“Astute strategy.”The friendly smile on Zero-Gee’s face never faltered. 

Dunder and Bender looked at each other bewilderedly. 

“He seems to have knowledge that was…” Vak struggled to articulate.

“Pre-programmed?” Azkh suggested.“It’s very likely.Zero, do you have any skills with firearms?”

Zero blinked a few times.“I’d…have to see the weapon in question, but I believe so.”

Azkh nodded.“Guys, I want you to take Zero to the house.Use the access tunnels.”

Bender nodded.He beckoned to his brother who led Zero out of the shelter hut, leaving Vak and Azkh alone.

“You’re taking great pains to protect him,” Vak observed.

“His knowledge comes from a time when orc-kind was a servant race to the Numenoreans,” Azkh said.“It’s become clear that we’ve had a lot of that knowledge hard-wired into our DNA somehow.But Zero’s accessing it a lot more freely.”

“We can discuss this another time,” Vak said.“We need to hurry.”

 

***

 

“So, what is it we’re lookin’ for?” Gorzu grumbled.They were on the threshold of the woods.The sky was beginning to become overcast.

“Hold it!” Brûz barked.“There.”

 

Brûz and his three Marauders saw a group of four mercs in the open field on the other side of the mountain, making their way through tall grasses.Brûz was the only one tall enough who could see their movement. 

“Four of ‘em, they all got rifles,” he told Gorzu Slow-yet-Steady.“If you can keep from stickin’ that phaser in yer eye, we might have a chance of taking them by surprise.”

Brûz saw the lead merc pause, and wave a little device in front of him.

“Uh-oh,” he said.

“What-oh?” Grinashk the Handsome asked.

“The lead one’s got a little box,” Brûz whispered.“Trackin’ us.”

“How dry’re those grasses, you reckon?” Gorzu suggested.

“Not very.It rains here every afternoon,” Brûz replied.“But…”

“If we box them off ‘ere,” Dozur Bright-eye suggested, “We can come round, and hit them from the side.”

It was then that the four of them heard a distant roaringin the distance beyond the mercenaries.A force moving through the grasses cut through, beelining straight for them.The mercs began to fire their disruptors, punctuating the air with high-pitched whines and yelling but before they could even get a bead on who was attacking them, they were down.Brûz winced as he heard the wet sounds of a blade against flesh. 

Four times.

When he opened his eyes, he looked on as he saw the bald pate and full golden beard of the interloper.

He sighed.

“Oh, great.It’s El Kabong,”

“The Orc-Slayer,” Dozur said, reverently. 

“Who just conveniently wandered into our sights,” Brûz grumbled.“Could have gotten himself zapped and then we’d be down to twenty-four.”

When he looked up, Forthog Orc-Slayer himself was staring at Brûz with green eyes. 

“You have to be better than that, War Chief” He asked Brûz, and scoffed.“Stand and fight!.”

And with that, he trotted off, leaving three impressed Mauraders in his wake.

But not before dropping what was in the lead merc’s hands.

“Oho!” Brûz hooted, looking at the tracker.“It’s got all the other buggers’ positions here as well as us.”

“We can find ‘em and pick ‘em off!” Grinashk exclaimed.

“Right,” Brûz grinned with satisfaction.“Let’s go!”

 

***

 

 

It was lying on its side when Ratbag found it. 

“Urr,” Raskhu Thunderpants growled, sidling around it.“Smells of Dwarf.”

“And spices,” Gark Caragor-Lover added. 

“Okay,” Ratbag said, rubbing his hands together.“Let’s get it upright.”The four of them heaved until it was sitting solidly on four round pads underneath.There was no canopy, and there was no room for more than one passenger.

Azkh told him there was something called a hover-bike out here, and this must have been it.It was dark in color, and had four hover units on either side of the saddle in the center. 

_If you could ride a caragor_ , Ratbag thought, _you could manage this_. 

“How do you work it?” Raskhu asked.

“Push the button fings,” Gark replied.

Ratbag jumped onto the saddle and looked at the controls.The handles seemed pretty self-evident, and various other knobs could be ignored as long as he could get it moving.But which one?

He looked down at the dashboard.

Oh.

 _Oh_.

“I…” He said, quietly.“I think I _get_ this.Like the guns.I…know how this _works_.”

As the other three watched, he began to flip the ignition switches, watching as each meter on the dashboard went up and turned green.He turned the crank on the left handle and saw the corresponding power meter rev up, the whining sound the antigrav pads underneath increasing. 

“Fully charged, are you, luv?” he said to the bike.“Come on, Buttercup, let’s get you movin’…”

The hover-bike began to rise from the forest floor.Ratbag leaned forward into the dash, holding on to both handles, gripping them tight.He flexed his left foot on the pedal (And was grateful they chose the kicks for him to wear after all).

He nearly flattened Krug as the bike surged forward. 

“Okay!” he exclaimed.“Hard part’s over!Which one of you globs gonna ride backside?”

From the front of the bike (And slightly underneath it), Krug exclaimed, “WOO!”

Rashku and Gark, slightly more cautious, both pointed at Krug.

 

They would come to regret it.

 

While Krug sat backward on the hover-bike, brandishing a wooden bat, the other two were hanging on either side for dear life, while Ratbag plowed through the forest.Finding the compartment with the goggles, he had them on.The forest flew by, trees whooshing past them, bushes getting flattened under the bike, and rasping against the two side-passengers.

“Could ya maybe go a little slower?” Rashku cried, his voice drowned out in the droning sound of the hover-bike.

Ratbag grinned.“Lemme check…nope, nope, I don’t think so,” he replied, cackling.

“FASTER!” Krug exclaimed.

Eventually, they came up on a group of four mercs with guns. 

“Get yer basher ready, Krug!” Ratbag cried. 

As they surged even faster, Krug partially stood up, his weapon slung behind him, ready to strike.As they did, fire came in from the mercs. 

Gark was hit, and fell off the bike. 

Ratbag didn’t have time to cry out. “NOW!” he hollered.

Krug swung the bat and found their opponent’s armor not quite as resistant to melee attacks as it was to phasers.He struck the merc’s midsection and they went down.

In an attempt to keep their backs away, Ratbag turned the bike round hard, while turning off the forward propulsion.Then, satisfied that he’d stopped enough, he surged back again for another run.

That’s when he found the red trigger on the handlebars.

“Oh ho ho ho ho!” He hooted with laughter.“Now it’s a party!”

 

He flicked the safety off and hunkered down.A heads-up display gave him crosshairs to aim…whatever it was he was firing. 

“Um, Rattie?”It was Raskhu.

“Just a sec,” Ratbag said, waving him off.

Then he felt that prickly feeling from the back of his neck.He looked up.A warrior in grey armor was about to bear down on him.His blade was longwise with hand holds on the other side.Time seemed to stretch out as he saw the point of connection.The alien blade would both puncture his throat and rip him down his gut. 

He didn’t have time to yell out.

But then.

 

A blur tackled his attacker from above. Time sped back up as he saw two of the Dark Tribesmen on either side, take down the rest of the mercs. 

The blur was his new boy friend.They landed on the ground with a thump, rolling in the ground while Azkh struggled to get the bat’leth out of the warrior’s hands.That failing, he jumped back and brought his own blade to bear.Ratbag had a chance to take a look. 

He was no mercenary.

Like the picture of the man who raised Azkh, this was a Klingon.He wore attire that looked like it was made to dull blades and repel guns, with fur trim.His forehead was both wrinkled and almost armored, and his dark eyes bore into Azkh.

“Toq,” Azkh spat.“You still hold to your master?”

“My master has given me much prosperity,” The Klingon named Toq sneered.“More than any title would guarantee in these unsure times.”He craned his neck to glare at Azkh.“Just like he did for you.”

“So much for the monolithic concept of ‘Klingon Honor’”, Azkh mocked, as he brought his own blade to bear.He swung it round, and readied himself.

“So,” Toq grinned.His teeth were sharpened, Ratbag noticed.Whatever Klingons were, they were no Tarks.“The mild-mannered creature in the woods has some teeth after all.”

“Rule number two,” Azkh said, as he made the first move. Their blades clashed, ringing out in the forest.The afternoon rains began to come down.Azkh withdrew his arm, than swung again and again.Toq matched him move for move.

“Well?” Toq demanded.“What’s rule number two?”

Azkh smiled.“I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Oh!” Ratbag exclaimed.In the melee, he and his Feral boys were all but forgotten. 

He still had his finger on the trigger.He just had to aim himself at the warrior instead. 

Rotating the hover bike around, he moved until he had the two of them in his sights.However the both of them kept moving back and forth, still clashing with their blades, that Ratbag didn’t have a clear shot. 

“OI!” he hollered.“RULE NUMBER ONE!”

The both of them swiveled their heads toward him.Again Toq looked confused.“What are these rules?” He growled. He didn’t notice Azkh sidle away.

“Not talkin’ to you, you big-headed glob,” Ratbag sneered, and pulled the trigger on the bike.

The shot wasn’t too impressive, though the sound of the blast rung through the trees.The yellow blast hit Toq, causing him to literally ignite and fly back almost ten meters. 

Ratbag jumped off the hover-bike and ran toward Azkh, who began to inspect the still-burning body of Toq. 

That is, the half of Toq that remained.The disruptor blast had blown half of him to pieces, and the remaining body smoldered. 

“Yeesh,” Ratbag said, grimacing. 

“Don’t feel too bad,” Azkh said. 

 

Kaszh came back to them.“Those four are routed,” he reported to Azkh.“Zaga’s gone on ahead.”He looked at Toq’s corpse, and made a face.“Yeesh,” he said.

Azkh nodded.“Let’s regroup at camp, so we can check on Az-harto’s progress at home base,” he told Kaszh.“Make sure we’re all still here.

“Hey!” Rashku called out.“Gark’s still kicking!”

Ratbag turned back around to Azkh and grinned.“Well look at us.”

“It’s not over yet,” Azkh said.“Though his death should put whoever’s flying those ships on notice.”

Ratbag’s smile faded.He quietly took Azkh’s hand.“Rule number three?”

“Hmm?” Azkh looked down at Rattie.

“Ratbag and Azkh fight together from now on,” he told Azkh.“Gotta keep an eye on you.”

 

***

 

The trip back to the camp was strangely uneventful.Brûz and his Marauders sauntered back as well.

 

“Here,” Brûz said, dropping the scanner box into Azkh’s hands.“We got ourselves about five, and Beardy McStupidface clanged about seven with his weaponized banjo.”

“Nice to know he’s still out there,” Azkh said, trying not to laugh at Brûz’s hard-wired jealousy. 

Azkh looked at the scanner, and frowned

“Threre’s nothing here,” he told Brûz. 

“Yeah,” Brûz agreed.“Guess they decided to bugger off once they realized there wasn’t just you out here.”

 

Azkh was about to comment on their being lucky when the device began to signal out.He squinted at the display.“Incoming…”

He was temporarily blinded by the flash of light that issued out of the scanner, causing him to drop it.As he did, a holographic projection formed, and Ratbag and the others got their first look at the Nameless One.Dressed in the purple attire as the mercenaries, his visage was Klingon, though his skin looked as pale as Azkh’s.His expression was cold. 

“Mister Azkh,” The image of The Albino addressed him.The smile he gave had no warmth or sincerity to it.“I have to say, I’m rather impressed.”

“Are you?” Azkh spat.“I’m not.You’re predictable, Qagh.Everything you’ve done was telegraphed.Even the fact that you aren’t even here in person.”

The Abino looked down his slightly crooked pale nose at Azkh.“Perhaps.Perhaps I just wanted to send you a message.”

“Well, it looks like you _received_ a message instead,” Azkh sneered, and wheeled around the projector.Ratbag and the others looked at it with fascination.After all, before they crawled out of the cryo-box, things like this were sorcery. 

Azkh continued.“I made my intentions clear when I told you I didn’t want to work for you anymore.That what you did crossed a line with me.That should have been good enough for you.”

“What I did,” The Albino growled, “Was because of your actions.” 

“Bullshit!” Azkh scoffed.“You were going to murder those children regardless of what I did.”

“I’m wounded that our relationship had to end this way,” The Albino sighed.“I really enjoyed your work, Azkh.The way you worked my finances, able to find every tax loophole over multiple planetary governments.You should see the man who’s doing it now.He cannot hold a candle to you.”

Brûz looked on with interest.He began to understand.

“So you can see how much this pains me,” The Albino continued. 

“Oi,” Brûz interjected.

The Albino turned around, and slowly craned up.“Oh, my, that’s…a very impressive thug you have there, Azkh.”

“Thanks,” Brûz said.“Now, I gotta say—A lotta what yer sayin makes sense.Gotta make sure everyone’s on the same page when you’re running your little racket, right?”

The Albino pursed his lips and nodded.

“But you got my guy all wrong.He’s got—whaddaya call it—integrity.He knows what he’s about, and he knows where to draw the line.If you’d done him right, he’d have done you better.But you did him dirty, didn’t you?You made him party to some ugly things, and he had to walk away, right?Sometimes, paleface, you gotta give up the fort.And sometimes, you gotta defend it to the last.”

Azkh looked in amazement at Brûz’s speech.

Brûz leaned down, his head covering the top of the Albino’s projection. He punched one huge hand into his other. “So what’s it gonna be?”

 

As if on cue, the disruptor turret fired in the distance, sending green fire into the sky.Between Ranger and Zero, they sent a warning shot up into orbit.

 

“…Because we could do this all day,” Brûz finished.

 

The Albino turned back to Azkh.“It’s quite an army you have hired, Azkh,” He told him.

“They’re not an army,” Azkh replied.“They’re…” He looked as Brûz, Ratbag, The Feral Boys, the Dark Tribesmen and the Marauders looked on.He smiled as he realized.The foundation of any society. 

 

“They’re family.”

 

“All right,” The Albino said.“I think we’ve come to terms.So long as I have your word that you vacate the property in…let’s say, six months.That’s still my planet you’re squatting on.”

“Fair enough,” Azkh said.“And I maintain my client list throughout the quadrant, without any interference from you.”

The Albino acquiesced.“Of course.”

“And…” Azkh whipped out a datapad and began to tap furiously on it.“Just so we’re square, I’m transferring this sum of credit to your account to cover final rent and…” He added with a wicked grin, “Compensating you for your losses.Shame about Toq.”

“Anyone stupid enough to get blasted will be easy to replace,” The Albino said, mirthlessly.“We’re leaving.I suggest you make the most of the time you have left here.”And with that, the projection winked out.

 

A moment passed.Ratbag and the rest looked at Azkh expectantly.Brûz began to grin and chortle. 

“Guys…” Azkh addressed them.“I think we won.”

“WOO!” Krug whooped.He was soon eclipsed by the triumphant roar of…

Of Azkh’s new tribe.

 

**

 

Later that night, in the Mystics’ shelter,Vak and Zero hunkered over the star maps that Azkh procured for Zero.Vak sat crossed legged, his eyes screwed shut, as his hands splayed over the display.Zero looked on with interest. 

“I’m not sure I understand how you are procuring these galactic coordinates,” Zero said, as Vak continued to gutturally hum and clench his hands.“But you seem to be indicating an area in what is now called the Alpha Quadrant.”

Vak opened his eyes.“It is what it is, Brother.If we are meant to take this tribe there, then we will do so.”

Zero sighed.“An area of space that was once inhabited by the Hebitians,” Zero noted.“Close by to B’havel.”

“There.”

Zero looked at Vak’s final divinations on the map and nodded.“Yes, this area in and around this nebula should hold many possibilities.”

“I have seen it.The Draenor system,” Vak said.“Ugh, i could go for some grog.”

As he got up to grab a bottle of spiced rum, Zero-Gee continued to look at the map.

“Yes, the possibilities are…” And for a moment—just a moment, Zero’s expression darkened, his eyes lit from within. His smile became temporarily unpleasant.

“ _Eternal_.”

 

 

***

 

The night sky glowed blue with the light of the Azure nebula.The trees reflected a good deal of the blue light back, and as a result much of the forest was covered in a diffused blue haze. 

From their vantage point, Brûz and Az-harto could see the camp area as well as Azkh’s home.They lay side by side upon the forest floor, quietly.

Neither of them were wearing any clothes.Brûz’s shorts and rifle hung upon a tree branch.Brûz looked down at his bare feet and wiggled his toes, rubbing his leg against Az-harto’s.

“So it is settled,” Az-harto said.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Brûz sighed. 

“It should be made clear,” Az-harto rumbled.“I’ve never forgiven you for your treachery.”

“Well, we’re not doin’ this because we like each other,” Brûz replied.“I mean…” He began to run his hand up and down Az-harto’s torso.As he did, Az-harto’s flesh began to change color.He shuddered a bit.“I mean, I respect you and all.This translator thing they gave us let me get a full handle on you.”

“You are a formidable warrior,” Az-harto replied, before gasping at Brûz’s touch.He lay down on in the pine needles, as Brûz leaned over him. 

“So let’s just do this.Propagation of the species and all that, right?”

“Azkh spoke of…changes and finding new paths—“

“That’s enough talkin’” Brûz said, and put his mouth over Az-harto’s.He lay over the other Olog’s body, and as he enjoyed the sensations of touching his partner’s body, a curious thing began to happen.

As with Az-harto, Brûz’s flesh began to change color.His back turned reddish, and previously unseen gill-like slits widened.Brûz straddled Az-harto, running his hands up and down his chest and abdomen, down to his hips, enjoying every shiver he was eliciting. 

Az-harto placed his hand around the back of Brûz’s head and pulled him back down with his own massive strength.He attacked Brûz’s mouth now, and the two seemed locked together.As with Brûz, his own body began to respond.The gills on his own back and sides darkened, and as he and Brûz rolled around and writhe in pure pleasure, the air around them began to be filled with a sparking mist.Brûz breathed deeply as he saw the literal fruit of their carnal labor.He stopped his motions, but Az-harto kept on.

“No,” he gasped.“We must release… _all_ of our spores.”

To that end, Az-harto took the initiative and took his wide tongue and began to lick Brûz, from his groin all the way up to his neck.

That was enough for Brûz, who, in his convulsions of ecstasy, was suddenly awash in the twinkling particles.Az-harto collapsed beside him, absently running his hand along Brûz’s chest.They watched as the particles sparkled even more brightly above them, and slowly settled down upon them. 

As it happened, Brûz’s eyes widened.“I…I _feel_ them,” he whispered.

“Yes,” Az-harto gasped.“We must be still for a time, to allow them to attach. “

“Right,” Brûz said, nodding, and noted,“It wasn’t like this for me last time.”

“Eh?” Az-harto grunted, turning toward him as he sat up to allow the mist to land on his back.

“Yeah,” Brûz replied, sitting up as well.“Daz and Baz and Gaz—you know, my blood brothers?…They’re actually _mine_.”

Az-harto’s eyes glinted behind his face paint.“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

They sat there a moment, enjoying the sounds of the forest in silence. 

Then Az-harto spoke up.

 

“We have to make a new decision.”

 

***

 

Back at the house, Azkh and Ratbag lay in bed.Ratbag nuzzled against Azkh’s neck as Azkh began to study the map of the Rolor Nebula, which Vak and Zero had chosen for their eventual new home. 

Ratbag, eyes closed, sighed and told him.“Put it away.”

Azkh mumbled, “I will,” and patted Rattie on the shoulder.

Ratbag stretched his hand, snatched the padd, away, and put it on the other side of the bed.“Lights out,” he called out to the room, and the lights obediently winked out. 

“Getting the hang of all yer toys,” Ratbag said, and purred into Azkh’s neck. 

Azkh chuckled.He too would have to adapt to having a partner.“Good night.”

“Night-night.”Ratbag lay there with Azkh, then suddenly sat back up.“Lights on.”

The lights came back on.

Azkh frowned.“What’s wrong?”

Ratbag looked intently at Azkh.“Rule Four?”

Azkh sat up as well.“Yeah?”

Ratbag cleared his throat.“Ratbag and Azkh help each other out so they can be their best.”

Azkh grew concerned.“What do you mean?”

Ratbag looked off as his hands began to move.“Like, when you helped me choose those boots, and they were the right fit?”

“Yeah, and when you helped me think about a strategy to fend off the Albino…” Azkh replied.

“Or, if…say…we went and had my…teeth…fixed,” Ratbag meandered.

Azkh laughed good-naturedly and pulled Ratbag to him, kissing him on the cheek.“Oh, Rattie!I don’t care about that…as long as you’re healthy and…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Ratbag cut him off.“But listen.I like these little pecks you give me.Kissy-kissy, very nice.”He then turned to Azkh with a new look on his face.“But eventually, I’m gonna want to snog you good, and I don’t want you endin’ up lookin’ like your brother.”

Azkh turned slightly pink.“That’s…something we should start planning for, I guess.”

“Yah.”Ratbag lay back down.“Lights out!”

The lights obediently went back out.

“Did you want to…?” Azkh began to ask.

“Nyeh?” Ratbag murmured.

“If and when the Time comes…”Azkh began, suddenly self-conscious.“Did you want to, with me?Or at all?”

Ratbag buried his face into Azkh’s neck.“If you, then who else?Now go to sleep.”

Azkh gave Ratbag one last peck on his temple, and closed his eyes.“Good night.”

“Yeah, love you too,” Ratbag murmured, and then began to snore.

 

And for the second night in a row, Azkh the Accountant fell asleep with tears in his eyes.

To be sure, when he ventured to Arda with the USS Medea vets to recover the Twenty-Five, a month ago, he didn’t have this in mind.But now, with the Uruk in his arms, asleep by his side, he could not imagine his life now without him. 

Vak was right after all. 

And change was good.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter should, quite frankly, be its own fic, but I'm keeping it with the Side Quest story for continuity's sake. 
> 
> Thanks to @Draylon! 
> 
> Thanks to the Bright Lord's Army Discord Server as well.


	7. Epilogue: Hidden Cutscene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Azkh's new tribe celebrates back at Caritas.   
> Bruz and Ranger have an announcement. 
> 
> The Uruk Adventure is Just Beginning.

_Shooting at the walls of heartache_

_BANG BANG!_

_I am the Warrior_

_Yes I am the Warrior_

_And heart to heart you win if you surviiiiive…_

_The Warrior!_

 

Whether they’d meant for it to be or not, it was Orc Karaoke Night at Caritas, back on Fence.Most of the Twenty-Five had accompanied Azkh and Ratbag to the club where they first met. 

Most of them couldn’t sing.It didn’t matter.Most of them simply pounded their hands on the tables to the rhythm of the music.The bartender furiously attempted to replicate Uruk Grog for them, while Azkh and Ratbag sipped on their Sea Breezes.Well, Azkh sipped; Ratbag downed his in one, like the last time.

As the boys in the background carried on, Lorne the Host insinuated himself with the two of them. 

“How are you two lovebirds?” He began.

“It’s…Azkh said, putting his hands on Ratbag.“It’s been a journey.”

Ratbag nodded, and moved his jaw as he put his glass down. “Yesh,” he lisped.

Lorne frowned.“Something wrong?”

“It’sh,” Ratbag grumbled, then opened his mouth wide, revealing metal devices over what appeared to be…

What appeared to be new and reset teeth.

Which would explain the Uruk’s uncharacteristic quiet.

“We went in for his periodontal regeneration therapy today,” Azkh explained.“He had the dental regrowth therapy when we first arrived.A lot of the boys went in for similar treatment.I mean, it only seemed fair…”

“He didn’t want to seem like hish boyfriend was gettin’ shpecial treatment,” Ratbag said.

“Hmm,” Lorne nodded.“I remember when I first landed in L.A.Luckily for me I found a guy who knew a guy who knew a shaman.Got pearly whites just in time for opening night.” Lorne flashed them a dazzling smile to prove it. 

“Now, between the singing and the drum solos you boys are pounding out, I am a little concerned for your future,” Lorne said.“I take it you’ve gone through the first of your Troubles.”

Azkh nodded. 

“Now don’t get me wrong.Sauron’s a Big Bad, no doubt.But out here, You’re gonna find all sorts of obstacles and pitfalls.Your Rolor Nebula’s on the whole other side of the Federation, and even in safe space, there’s places and people and, well, things that aren’t that friendly.”

“Right.” Azkh said, looking at the boys receiving their grog and mumbling amongst each other.In a corner booth, Az-harto and Brûz sat, looking especially broody.Unlike back home, they wore obscuring cloaks.

“I was actually considering,” Azkh said, “Applying for colonization aid with the Federation Council.The Khitomer Accords technically makes me a citizen, and I should retroactively qualify.

Lorne considered.“I mean, lots of demon tribes pass themselves off as native to this dimension and gotten their own colonies that way.Doing things by the book would also mean that your tribe’ll be nomads for awhile.Do you want to do that?Wander the stars while you wait for your turn for home?”

Azkh considered.“I’ve been a homebody for most of my life.And these boys have been under the yoke of a Dark Lord for all of theirs.This is just another change, right?”

“If this is the path you’re choosing,” Lorne said, “Then you need to know that not all of your problems are ahead of you.Some of your Troubles are coming at you from behind.And some of them, you’re taking with you.”

“If thad don’t shound like a cryshtal ball, I don’t know what doesh,” scoffed Ratbag.

“Hey, _you_ try divining someone’s path with rhythmic pounding,” Lorne snapped.“That’s the best I can give you until one of you can carry a tune."

Ratbag held up his hands.“Shor- _ry_.”

Azkh put his hands on his chin.“There goes my mens’ choir idea.”

“Mensh—?“ Ratbag glared at Azkh.“We’re gonna see that other Earth!The one that doesn’t have a middle!”

“If you happen to visit Los Angeles Island,” Lorne said, “Be sure to visit the Hermosa Reef.Even if you don’t particularly care for snorkeling, there’s an underwater temple that might point you in the direction of…other friends.”

Azkh and Ratbag glanced at each other, then back to Lorne.“There’s more orcsh out here?” Ratbag lisped.

“I don’t know about that, but that temple contains the shrine of Gul’Dan, which might help you locate them.”

Azkh nodded.“We’ll take that into consideration.”

“And now, you might want to pay attention to your big guys,” Lorne said, getting up.“They have something to say.”

As Lorne made his exit, Azkh turned around to find Ranger and Brûz looming behind them.Ratbag looked concerned as he saw the expression on his Olog friend’s painted face.

“What ish it, fella?” He said to Az-harto.

He looked down, and began to speak, but was interrupted by Brûz.

“Um…Big Brother…Ranger and me, we gotta tell you something.”

 

Azkh frowned.The look on both of their faces were deeply earnest. 

 

Azkh stood up and faced them.“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Brûz began to hesitated, but Ranger elbowed him.“Right!Well, the thing is…see…”

Az-harto sighed and rolled his eyes, before looking straight at Azkh.“We cannot join you.”

Ratbag’s eyes bugged out of his head.“WHO TAUGHT RANGER HOW TO TALK?” he exclaimed.

Azkh put his finger on Ratbag’s lip ring and tapped twice.“What’s going on?”

“Well, see,” Brûz continued to hem and haw, “We came to a decision before we left for Fence, after we beat back the Albino, after…And, see, we have to stay behind for a time…Us expectin’ and all.”

“Expecting?” Azkh looked confused for a moment, before he realized.His face brightened considerably.“You mean…?”

Brûz lifted back the cloak he was wearing, revealing nubbly projections on his bare skin. Ranger did the same.Azkh gingerly stepped up to Brûz to inspect one of them, and found, inside one of the little polyps…

 

A tiny Olog-hai embryo, suspended in fluid.

 

“Oh my word,” Azkh breathed. 

Ratbag looked at one of the polyps on Ranger’s body as well.“Ranger!You’re gonna be a _daddy_!”

Ranger looked down at the beaming Ratbag, his braces shining.“And you, their silly little uncle.”

“But I don’t understand,” Azkh said to them.“We can accommodate your young—hell, I _welcome_ it!”

“You cannot accommodate them yet,” Ranger corrected Azkh.“After the polyps disengage from the parent, they implant in the soil, where they will emerge as Olog-babes.The connection must happen for them to grow to completion.”

Azkh nodded.“How long?” he asked them.

“Last time, it was half a year,” Brûz said.

“We think we can have them ready to move before the Albino’s deadline,” Ranger assured Azkh. 

 

Azkh sighed.“Okay.We’ll give you a subspace frequency you can use to stay in contact with us.And a ship you can use to escape with.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Brûz said.“By the time the kids are ready to move, that Albino will be givin’ us everything we need to get us out of his hair.”

“But I don’t undershtand,” Ratbag said.“The two of you couldn’t _stand_ one another.Why did you…?” Ratbag made a gesture with two of his fingers.“ _You_ know."

The two Ologs glanced at one another.“If the Dark Lord is defeated,” Az-harto began, “Our kind will not be suffered to live.”

“We were kind of an endangered species to begin with,” Brûz added.“I mean, I figured you’d be coming back to snag _your_ kind—the Orcs, the Uruks, the little mountain goblins, that sort,”Azkh began to protest, but Brûz held up his hand.“But we gotta make sure we’re gonna keep on truckin’ in this brave new galaxy out here, so we…made a few decisions.”

Ranger turned to Brûz and his face twisted into a wry smile.“It wasn’t so bad.”

Brûz began to chuckle nervously.“No… heh heh, it wasn’t…so bad.”

 

“You don’t have to tell us everything,” Azkh said, beginning to turn pink in the cheeks.

“Now, don’t be exerting y’shelf, now, Ranger,” Ratbag said, suddenly concerned.“Not in your delicate condition.”

“I don’t think we have to worry about that, Rattie,” Azkh chided.

“Well, no,” Brûz corrected.“See, when you got babies on board, they’re vulnerable until they drop.That’s why I only had the three survive before.Half of them got sloughed off while I was messin’ about.”

“It is why our kind generate so many,” Ranger added.

“Life ever finds a way,” Azkh said, remembering that long ago conversation with Kaitlin Riley.“Brûz…”

Brûz dropped to one knee to Azkh’s eye level.“Gonna miss you lot.Kind of growed on me, you did.”

Brûz opened up his arms and gave Azkh an Olog-sized hug.“Gonna miss you most of all, Big Brother.”

Ranger picked Ratbag up and embraced his little friend as well.“That goes for me as well, Little Brother.”

 

The others began to notice, and started to crowd around. 

“What’s this I heard?” Vak said, swaying slightly.“Our Olog Brothers are staying behind?”

“They are with children!” Zaga exclaimed.“ _Having my baby, what a lovely way of saying…_ ”

“Way to go, you guys!” Dozur added.

“Hear hear!” G’nash exclaimed.

“WOO!” Krug whooped.

“Well, it looks like these kids are going to have a whole bunch of doting uncles when you rejoin us,” Azkh said.

“Congratulations,” Zero-Gee said, walking up to the pair.

As the group gathered around the Olog parents, and as Azkh and Ratbag smiled at each other, Lorne looked on, concern on his face.

 

“Oh, _don’t_ be like that!” A joyous voice chided the Host.

“But it always starts this way,” Lorne said.“Everything’s so optimistic, with unlimited possibilities.Six seasons and a movie.But that’s not how these things always end.There’s gonna be hardship.Sadness.Death.

“Yes, but there will be life!New beginnings!Making new decisions and eventually?A place at the table for a people who were slaves for so long.”The stranger regarded Lorne, in his bright blue coat and yellow boots.“It happens over and over and over across a galaxy, across a universe.Across all the universes?It’s like breathing.In and out and in and out.It’s like a song.”

“I _do_ like a song,” Lorne admitted.

“So do _I_!” The stranger exclaimed.“Don’t worry, Krevlorneswath—When this tribe gets there—and they will get there…”

 

“Old Tom Bombadillo will be waiting.”


End file.
